Air Quality Assessment for Land Off Dorking Way

The development site was originally a greenfield site to the west of Calcot in West Berkshire.

The planning application was submitted for the erection of 199 dwellings with public open space, hard and soft landscaping and vehicular access off Dorking Way.

We were commissioned to undertake an Air Quality Assessment (AQA) in order to establish whether the site’s location was considered suitable for the proposed residential use and to quantify any likely pollution impacts upon the surrounding area or local sensitive receptors as a result of the construction and/or operation of the proposed development.

Identified Challenges

The usual challenges associated with developments of this nature and scale are, the existing pollution levels in the vicinity of the site, traffic related impacts associated with the operation of the proposed development and the temporary impacts, upon the local area, associated with construction activities.

Additionally, the site was located near the Reading Town Centre Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).

The Findings of the Air Quality Assessment

The AQA identified that:

all of the closest and most-representative monitoring locations for the baseline year at the time (2017) were significantly below the annual mean objective for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂);
a significant net increase in vehicle movements was anticipated following the completion of the proposed development;
detailed assessment, using atmospheric dispersion modelling (ADMS-Roads (Extra)) was required to quantify the traffic related air quality impact associated with the operation of the proposed development, upon existing and proposed/future receptors; and
a construction dust assessment was required to assess any construction dust impacts and provide suitable mitigation, where required.

The AQA concluded that the local air quality was considered suitable to safeguard the amenity, health and wellbeing of the existing and new residents.

Following the completion of the dispersion modelling, the traffic related impacts were considered to be of imperceptible magnitude and negligible significance and as such concluded that the operational traffic was unlikely to result in a detrimental pollution impact upon the local road network and existing pollution levels.

Suitable mitigation measures were recommended to mitigate any potential dust impacts associated with the construction activities.

The proposal was granted planning permission by West Berkshire District Council in June 2019 (19/01544/FULXT).

Author/Contact details

If your project requires an Air Quality Assessment or if you are interested in finding out how we can help you with your Air Quality needs throughout the planning process, please contact Lucinda Pestana lpestana@mayerbrown.co.uk.