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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
RESOLVED – That the correspondence update and the updates on the work programme be noted.
Apologies had been received from Cllr Green, Cllr Parry, Cllr De’Ath (Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Strategic Planning & Transport) and Helen Picton (Head of Shared Regulatory Services). The Chair noted that there was currently a vacancy on the committee, as Cllr Lloyd Jones had taken up the office of Lord Mayor for the remainder of the municipal year. She placed on record her thanks to Cllr Lloyd Jones for her contributions and commitment to the work of the committee and wished her well in her role as Lord Mayor.
There were no declarations of interest.
The minutes of the meeting held on 10th October 2024 were approved by the Committee as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
Decision as recorded
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Members received a report providing background information to aid scrutiny of the report to Cabinet regarding Cardiff Council’s Local Air Quality Annual Progress Report, which was due to be considered by Cabinet on 12th December. Members were advised that the Cabinet report sought approval for the 2024 Cardiff Council Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) Annual Progress Report (APR), based upon on air quality datasets obtained in 2023, for submission to Welsh government for approval. Members had the opportunity to explore the progress and performance of the council in relation to national air quality objectives. The Chair welcomed Andrew Gregory (Director of Planning, Transport & Environment) and Jason Bale (Operational Manager Enterprise & Specialist Services), who gave a presentation outlining the key points. Officers emphasised that poor air quality was the largest environmental risk to public health, and local authorities had statutory duties under the Environment Act to regularly review and assess air quality and determine whether air quality objectives were likely to be achieved. Air quality limits applied to particular localities, with annual average limits for residential facades and hourly limits for commercial properties, and 135 diffusion tubes had been installed across Cardiff for monitoring purposes. Officers noted the importance of air quality to the council’s city centre improvements and highlighted the Castle Street scheme, which had been awarded £262k funding for preparatory costs with a further funding award of up to £7.292m under consideration. The scheme would integrate with the wider Boulevard de Nantes - Newport Road - Broadway corridor, and the timeframe for these works would overlap with the Callaghan Square Crossrail implementation. It was important to understand and minimise air quality and road network impacts. Officers explained that the 135 locations monitoring nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across the city had reported encouraging results, with no sites exceeding the annual average objective in 2023 and an overall decrease of 37% since 2019. There had been a significant decrease due to the pandemic but the results were still lower than pre-pandemic levels. Cardiff had four specific Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) – in the city centre, near Stephenson Court on Newport Road, around the Ely Bridge junction and in Llandaff – and each of these had seen improvements compared to 2022 and 2023. Automatic air quality data was monitored at Frederick Street in the city centre, Richards Terrace on Newport Road and on Castle Street, and One Planet Cardiff capital funding had been allocated to a two year pilot to expand and enhance real-time monitoring capability across the city. 45 monitors had been installed as of May 2023, not just measuring NO2 but also PM2.5 and PM10 (particulate matter) with all locations meeting objectives. The next steps were for officers to review the monitoring network for 2025 and update the Clean Air Strategy and Action Plan, including identifying future interventions linked to the Transport White Paper and One Planet Cardiff. They would also need to assess the potential of the Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) (Wales) Act of 2024, consider detailed assessments for the Stephenson Court and Ely Bridge AQMAs, and continue working with Welsh government on the Castle Street scheme. The Chair opened the debate on this item. Those discussions are summarised as follows: Members welcomed the positive progress and enquired how much active travel schemes were responsible for these improvements compared with other factors such as changing traffic patterns post-Covid. Members also suggested that the move away from diesel buses had made a difference, in particular on Castle Street. Officers agreed that bus improvements had certainly helped, in addition to improved emission standards, greater proliferation of electric vehicles and active travel changes reducing the volume of traffic. Members explored the Castle Street project and heard that the final scheme would essentially be the same as the existing interim one, which would be made permanent with longer lasting materials and minor adjustments to meet legislative requirements of cycle and bus policies. Members queried how an unchanged scheme would lead to greater improvements to the air quality on Castle Street as stated, which officers clarified was due to the long-term impact of making the scheme permanent rather than reverting after 18 months. Members discussed the cycle pop-up scheme on Newport Road and heard that making this permanent was complex due to the need to avoid a detrimental impact on car and bus movements. The scheme was about to go out to consultation and would be subject to Welsh government funding. It would not be a fundamental change to the scheme and highway capacity would remain the same, but they were seeking to resolve issues for buses. Improvements would be made to the underpass of Boulevard de Nantes and pedestrian connections towards City Hall, maintaining bus and car movements along the street while enabling safer cycling and walking. Members asked about the impact of 20mph speed limits on air pollution compared to other factors. Officers explained that changing travel patterns were key, noting that pre-Covid there had been major morning and evening peaks which were no longer the case. It was difficult to indicate a specific improvement in NO2 due to the Welsh government’s 20mph policy, largely because Cardiff already had a lot of 20mph zones prior to its implementation. The wider benefit of the 20mph limit was in making streets safer which encouraged active travel. Members queried the pre-Covid trends and heard that there had been significant movement towards active travel pre-Covid. By definition, if people were walking, cycling or using public transport then it would naturally make a difference to air quality. The key learning in comparison to other UK cities was that there needed to be a comprehensive cycle network in place before there was a dramatic uplift, rather than the incremental uplift seen in Cardiff. Their longer-term aspiration was for one connected network rather than the current fragmented network, but it was important to do this in a way that did not detrimentally impact on buses or cars. Members noted the relatively high figures for PM2.5 concentration in Cardiff compared to the rest of Wales, which according to media reports was double the World Health Organisation’s annual guideline. Officers clarified that while there was currently no limit for local air quality management of PM2.5 as there was for NO2 or PM10, they would pay close attention to any guideline changes and increase monitoring capabilities if necessary. The council was compliant with the limits set out in the legislation as it stood, but would implement additional measures in order to go above and beyond. Members queried whether air quality levels would feed into future plans and decisions regarding road user charging. Officers explained that there wasn’t currently a defined model for what form that would take, but many cities across the UK had brought in clean air zones which were inevitably closely linked to air quality objectives, while others had road user charges or workplace parking levies. This was an area of ongoing work with no decisions made yet, and would all be subject to public consultation. AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Decision as recorded
AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Members received a report providing an update on meetings of the Corporate Joint Committee (CJC), its Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and the Western Gateway Partnership. The Scrutiny Officer advised Members that the CJC consisted of the Leaders of the ten local authorities and was the main decision-making body for the Cardiff Capital Region. Cllrs Wong and Proctor were the council’s representatives on the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which had met twice and was about to start a task and finish inquiry looking at transport, including active travel. She added that regarding the Western Gateway, the Severn Estuary Commission had been established and was gathering evidence. There was also an energy project called Western Edge looking at strategic connectivity, particularly in relation to transport and digital. Members noted the importance of energy issues to these discussions and heard that the Committee would be kept updated on their progress. AGREED: that the Chairperson, on behalf of the Committee, writes to the Cabinet Member conveying the observations and recommendations of the Committee when discussing the way forward.
Part of an issue followed across 11 meetings
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – That the correspondence update and the updates on the work programme be noted.
Members were provided with an update on the Committee’s correspondence since April 2024 and an update on the Work Programme for 2024/25. The Scrutiny Officer advised that only one letter was outstanding following the October meeting, but she was advised that it would be with them shortly. There had been a number of changes to the work plan as a number of items had slipped. She noted that there was only one substantive item on the agenda for the January meeting (the RDLP Deposit Plan) so they had asked the Director of Planning, Transport and Environment to bring an update in relation to Road User Charging to that meeting as well. The April meeting would look at the longer-term performance of the Planning, Transport & Environment Directorate, rather than just looking at their delivery plan as was standard. Members suggested looking at the recycling area in 2025, in particular Lamby Way and anaerobic digestion facilities. The Scrutiny Officer noted this and suggested including site visits to inform this work. RESOLVED – That the correspondence update and the updates on the work programme be noted.
There were no urgent items.
Members were advised that the next Environment Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for Thursday 16th January 2025 at 4:30pm.
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