Calls for West Vale to be granted special status rejected despite residents' concerns over air quality

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for West Vale, near Greetland, to be subject to Air Quality Management Area status – there are eight of these in other areas of the borough.

Before the May local elections, Calderdale Council’s Place Scrutiny Board considered the petition and with debate revealing some questions.

These included whether monitoring equipment was switched off for three months in 2018, when it was considered nitrogen oxide levels produced by traffic were not high enough to trigger the status, reached when nitrogen oxide levels reach 40 microgrammes per cubic metre, automatically.

Petitioners believe that with levels close to that it may have been reached and council officers pledged to compile a detailed report to answer questions which had been raised and could not be clarified at the time of the debate.

In the background residents are concerned that levels already could be pushed higher if around 600 new homes – and traffic associated with them – could be built if the council’s draft Local Plan, with sites earmarked in the area for that number.

But the officers’ report the council’s Cabinet will consider when members meet on Monday, June 6, recommends that while monitoring will continue, it does not require management area status.

The report says: “there is currently no evidence to suggest that local air quality is non-compliant with the NO2 objective in West Vale, and, consequently, there is no justification for declaration of an AQMA in this area at this time.”

Officers say the council has followed guidance and methodology to monitor nitrogen oxide levels at West Vale for the past five years and this is ongoing with monitoring methods kept under review.

They also argue modelling has taken place to judge the impact of new emissions – for example from extra vehicles associated with potential housebuilding.

Responding the three specific questions posed by the scrutiny board, officers say regarding monitoring equipment in 2018 that “nothing was switched off” at West Vale – a third tube actually at Salterhebble often referred to as being “West vale” was switched off while major highway work was carried out.

Because of this officers used Government and regional “correction” factors for data as the next nearest sampling diffusion tubes were at Hebden Bridge, as closer Sowerby Bridge monitors were also off-line for a short period in 2018.

And in 2004 diffusion tubes were deployed to the area because of concerns regarding potential “rat running” due to a major A629 capital project, a proactive in-service decision based on officers perceiving a possible air quality problem in that area – it was not at the request of the public or in response to any other demand, they say.

Five tubes were initially deployed but removed in 2006 – in 2017 wider air quality concerns arose due to findings from tubes deployed elsewhere across the borough, so officers decided to install two tubes on Stainland Road, between the two junctions, and these have remained in situ since, officers say in the report.