/bg/news/2129496/english-councils-gbp1m-improve-air-quality
02 Dec 2011, BusinessGreen staff , BusinessGreen
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2129496/english-councils-gbp1m-improve-air-quality
Councils in England have been promised an extra £1m to battle air pollution after the government’s initial £2m fund was heavily oversubscribed.
Environment Minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach confirmed the additional funding at the Environment Protection Conference in London yesterday, when he also unveiled a revised version of the Air Quality Index, a measure of air pollution levels.
“Although the quality of the air that we breathe has improved considerably, reducing air pollution is still one of our greatest challenges,” Taylor said. “That is why I am pleased to announce today that we are providing just over £1m of further funding to support these projects and to improve the local framework for delivering air quality improvements.”
Defra was forced to stump up the additional £1.186m some of the 51 projects approved under the initial Air Quality Grants had to be cut back and others could not be funded.
The department said it would work with councils to identify which projects could benefit from the extra funding to help reduce Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) emissions.
Local authorities with one or more Air Quality Management Areas for NO2 or those where the Government’s 2009 national air quality assessment identified a high level of NO2 emissions in their area will be eligible.
Councils that are successful will have to provide Defra with a progress report by September 2012 monitoring the success of each project and prove the money is being spent effectively.
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