Home > Environment > Environmental Protection > Air Quality > Air Quality Monitoring in the Dover District

Air Quality Monitoring in the Dover District

We are part of the Kent Air Quality Partnership, which was established in 1992 to work towards improving the quality of Kent's air. The Partnership is made up of representatives from each district's transport, planning and environment departments, Kent County Council, the Environment Agency, National Power and other stakeholders related to air quality issues.

Ricardo Energy & Environment manage the Kent & Medway monitoring network throughout the County. The monitoring enables us to pinpoint problem areas such as congested roads or highly polluting industrial processes. It can be estimated how much pollution is attributable to local sources and how much is imported from Continental Europe.

Dover Council are currently working on a revised updated Air Quality Action Plan. Once the final Plan is complete and accepted by Defra, the Plan will be adopted.

Daily reports are published on levels of six pollutants:

  • carbon monoxide

  • ozone

  • nitrogen dioxide

  • fine particles

  • sulphur dioxide

 

Air Quality Reports

Our most recent Air Quality Annual Status 2023 has been completed and accepted by  DEFRA. The report evaluates air pollution monitoring results for the district for 2022 and identifies new or significantly changed sources that could lead to potential air quality problems. 

We have examined the results from monitoring in the district. There were no exceedances of the annual mean NO2 objective in 2022. Two sites, DV-30 and DV-38 recorded annual mean concentrations above 36 µg/m3 (within 10% of the AQS objective). Site DV-30 is adjacent to 19 High Street, within the High Street/ Ladywell AQMA boundary. Site DV-38, which is outside the declared AQMAs, is adjacent to the roundabout at London Road, Deal.

The priority for the coming year (2024) is to finalise the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) based upon detailed modelling of the AQMAs and taking into consideration Defra’s proposals for ‘tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations’. This will be placed in the context of identified significant developments in Dover, including re-development of the Western Docks through the Dover Western Docks Revival Project and work on the Dover Waterfront area. The potential impact upon air quality from these developments will be appraised through the Strategic Environmental Assessment approach and through requests for air quality assessments under the planning and development regime. A package of measures to improve air pollution within the district are to be identified in the updated AQAP that is due to be published in late 2023 and has been recently approved for public consultation.

There have been no exceedances of the PM10 AQS objective within the past five years at the single PM10 monitoring location on Townwall Street (Dover Centre).

 

In March 2023 the Council have submitted for examination a new Dover District Local Plan to assess how future development will impact air quality within the area, with particular attention paid to any scenarios that will negatively impact air quality in sensitive areas, such as within AQMAs or within any of the internationally designated sites within the district

Environmental Permitting

 

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 introduced measures to reduce and control emissions to air, land and water from specified industrial processes and now the operators of specified installations are required to obtain a permit to operate. 

Please click on the below to take you to our Environmental Permitting webpage.

Environmental Permitting » 

Garden Bonfires

 

Garden bonfires produce smoke which contains carbon monoxide and toxic fumes and can ruin a neighbour's enjoyment of their garden, prevent windows being opened and prevent them hanging out their washing.

Please click on the below to take you to our garden bonfires webpage.

Garden Bonfires »  

General Enquiries

Should you have an enquiry in rleation to Air Pollution or Air Quality Monitoring please use the reporting form on the following link:

REPORT