Edinburgh air quality: East Norton Place fails to meet legal air quality as standards to get stricter

One Edinburgh road fails to achieve current target for air quality, but new standards will be four times stricter

Reductions in pollution levels in Edinburgh mean that only one road failed to meet the legal air quality targets, according to latest figures. But new international standards will introduce much tougher requirements which the Capital will struggle to achieve, officials warned.

The annual air quality progress report presented to the city council’s transport committee on Thursday showed East Norton Place at Abbeyhill was the only site in Edinburgh where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels exceeded the statutory target of 40 micrograms per cubic metre in 2021.

A report to the committee said: “Edinburgh has a well-established air quality monitoring network and in 2021 there were nine automatic stations monitoring different pollutants and 184 locations where non-automatic monitoring of NO2 was undertaken. Long term trends show concentrations of the main pollutants of concern are decreasing at locations across the city.”

Only one Edinburgh road failed to meet the current NO2 target, but new international standards will be tougher to achieve.

Edinburgh has five Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs), designated after previous breaches of the NO2 targets. They are Central, St John’s Road, Great Junction Street, Glasgow Road (Newbridge) and Inverleith Row. But the Inverleith Row one is in the process of being revoked and the St John’s Road amended. There is also an AQMA in the Salamander Street area, declared after breaches of the target for fine particles (PM10).

The report continued: “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a significant influence in respect to 2021 NO2 concentrations. On average, concentrations increased from 2020 levels they remain below pre-pandemic levels. This is also in keeping with traffic data analysis which shows traffic flows have remained lower than 2019 levels. Changes in driving patterns are also likely to affect concentrations with less peak-time travel.

“In 2021, there was one site within the Central AQMA (East Norton Place) where the statutory annual mean objective for NO2 was breached. Concentrations remain well below the objectives within the Inverleith Row AQMA. The Scottish and UK Government have supported the council’s decision to revoke this AQMA, hence this work is in-progress.

“For the second time since their declaration, there were no reported breaches in the statutory objectives for NO2 in the St John’s Road and Glasgow Road AQMAs. The first time this occurred was in 2020. Within the Great Junction Street AQMA, there have been no reported breaches of NO2 objectives for five years running, however revocation of the AQMA will not be considered until planned traffic management changes are in place.” It added that the Salamander Street AQMA met its annual PM10 objective for the second time since its declaration in 2017.”

But officials said the 2021 targets were linked to standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as long ago as 2005 and new WHO targets would soon be introduced. One official told the committee: “As a local authority we’re making good progress on meeting the current targets. The new targets are very strict and it would take us some time to meet these.” She said whereas the NO2 target was currently 40 micrograms per cubic metre, the new WHO targets would bring that down to 10 micrograms per cubic metre. “Most areas of the city are now 25-35, so we would be looking at quite a lot of action required to bring it down to the new guidelines.”

Transport and environment convener Scott Arthur while the figures showed the city was making good progress against the current targets the new objectives served as a reminder of the “huge challenges” ahead.