Monitoring stations will help test Luton's air quality

Ten more air quality monitoring stations are planned for Luton, with half due to be installed next month, a borough council overview and scrutiny board meeting heard.

An update on the recommendations of the London Luton Airport air quality task and finish group was introduced by service director sustainable development Sue Frost.

"We've made progress, but some of that has been hampered by the pandemic," she explained.

"We hope to hear in the next couple of months about getting a further five monitors, as we put a bid in through the capital programme."

But Liberal Democrat Stopsley councillor David Wynn warned: "We've declared a climate emergency in the borough and we're doing too little.

"This report is welcome and I'm pleased to see we're making some progress. Every member of the council needs to help push through more rapid changes, otherwise we won't succeed with our climate change proposal."

Liberal Democrat Barnfield councillor David Franks said: "The task and finish group made 19 recommendations and the executive decided to only look at four of them, which is a great shame.

"The attitude of the executive left several members of the group wondering why they bothered."

Technical officer in environmental protection Andrew Loosely explained: "We've put in a capital application to get some online monitors to provide continuous data on particulate matter.

"We're getting five of these units to put in at various hotspots across the town. We've a reasonable density of monitoring locations between the airport and ourselves.

"There was a call to engage with schools more closely, which London Luton Airport Limited (LLAL) is proposing to do. This is an area hit by lockdown, as children weren't at school for a portion of last year."

Luton was pretty similar to the rest of the UK on air pollution during lockdown, he added.

"The air quality expert group for the Department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) said there was a 30 per cent reduction in most places for nitrogen dioxide levels.

"It was a less pronounced reduction for particulates, about a 26 per cent reduction.

"This year we're higher. We're not as high as we've been previously. It's slightly depressed, but it has gone up again reasonably significantly from the lockdown."

Liberal Democrat Sundon Park councillor Anna Pedersen, who chairs the board, asked: "Have you got the funding to buy the ten continuous air quality centres?"

Mr Loosely replied: "I've yet to hear. Highways had funding for air quality monitoring and that's what we used to pay for the first batch of five.

"The application is in for an extension of that project. We have five coming next month."

Labour Challney councillor Tom Shaw said: "As the portfolio holder for climate change I disagree with a lot of what's been mentioned.

"The airport is working so closely now with the climate change working group it can only be good for the town moving forward.

"Four of the recommendations we adopted straight away. But a lot of the rest the group was working on already, which is why we didn't accept everything."

He described it as "a massive step forward for this council" enabling residents to see what the air quality is like in their areas.

"The new tubes are going where there are traffic problems, such as near Beech Hill Primary School and at Chaul End Lane," he added.

"A monitoring station is going in at Park Square soon and you can look above your head to see what the atmosphere is like. It will actually tell you."