Manchester Area Pollution Advisory Council

Air Quality Working Group

Mission Statement

The group aim to provide a uniform approach to air quality issues for all local authorities in the Manchester area and to contribute positively to the multi-disciplinary team (comprising transport engineers, planners and environmental health officers) that is now involved in delivering an Action Plan to improve air quality in and around the Greater Manchester area. There is also close working on transport issues and air quality for the Manchester area through the Steering Group and its links to the Local Transport Plan.

The Group operates in the following ways:

organisation of meetings and training workshops;
the preparation of responses to consultative documents and papers;

Consideration of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA's) as a means to reduce the:

public health effects of poor air quality;
provision of technical advice on the most cost-effective ways to establish effective monitoring throughout the Manchester area;
development of partnerships and funding mechanisms within the Manchester area to enhance air quality measurement and analysis;
liaison with the local planning and transport units to evaluate methods of air quality modelling and forecasting, and provide advice and guidance on how this may be best applied within the Manchester area;
development and maintenance of a regional emissions inventory;
assessing the best means of providing air quality information for the local community,
including methods of warning the public about poor air quality.

History

MAPAC has been a focus for liaison and development of good practice for air quality monitoring for many years and was a key organisation behind the effective implementation of smoke control in the Manchester area. The formation of the Air Quality Working Group in 1995 has led to improved liaison between the officers engaged in air pollution control work and more recently the development of more coordinated action on air quality management. Practical training and sharing of expertise is an important and cost effective way of ensuring consistency across the MAPAC area. There have been a number of workshops organised by the group to assist authorities in taking forward this rapidly developing area of work.

Historical work areas have included:

developing and maintaining the emissions inventory for the Greater Manchester area.
Look at the emission maps for 1998 to see a representation of the emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide in the area;
collation of information on air quality monitoring across the region;
responding to the National Air Quality Strategy (NAQS);
developing an Air Quality Strategy for the Manchester area - click on 'Clearing the Air' to access a copy of this publication; (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) N.B. If you do not already have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe's Web site.
submitting joint regional bids for funding an air quality modelling facility.
coordinated action on the declaration of Air Quality Management Areas by member authorities.

To find out more about air quality in Greater Manchester click here.