If we find any location in our district where we are not meeting national air quality standards, we must declare it as an AQMA - Air Quality Management Area.
This is where poor air quality standards could affect people in their homes, but does not include pavements, shops, and offices.
An AQMA may be one or two properties, but it could be much bigger and include a whole District.
Once we have declared an area as an AQMA, we have to put together a plan to improve air quality in that area. These are called an AQAP - Air Quality Action Plan
These are often created with the local Highways Authority, which for our district is Essex County Council.
We had previously declared an AQMA at Rawreth Industrial Estate, but this is now revoked. More information about Rawreth can be found in the related content
To find out if there are any other AQMA’s across Essex, please visit the Essex Air website in the in Related Content.
Rayleigh Town Centre AQMA
In 2015, we declared an AQMA - Air Quality Management Area in Rayleigh because the levels of NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) from traffic was too high. This area is from the Rayleigh Weir junction to Rayleigh Town Centre including the one-way system where traffic here and in surrounding roads has been an issue for a long time.
Weather conditions can also affect air quality.
Between 2017 and 2019, the levels of NO2 in Rayleigh Town Centre met the National Air Quality standards allowed within an Air Quality Management area.
We are confident that any future levels will remain within the standards allowed
Monitoring
Monitoring across our district is carried out using diffusion tubes at certain roadside locations throughout the AQMA and at some other locations based upon historical data or the potential for exceeding the levels. Every year our officers review the data we get from our monitoring sites along with anything that may affect air quality such as new developments or traffic routes.
For more information about how we monitor Air Quality in our district please see