The Operational Manager, Enterprise And Specialist Services, Shared Regulatory Services presented a report which:

1. Sought approval for the 2023 Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) Annual Progress Report (APR) based upon the air quality datasets obtained in 2022.

2. Updated Cabinet on progress towards the Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) for the Park Street Air Quality Management Area.

3. Provided details of a public health campaign designed to improve awareness of air quality issues and Park Street AQMA. Funding for this project has been approved from Welsh Government through the Local Air Quality Management support fund scheme 2023-24.

He explained that the 2023 Annual Progress Report confirms that in 2022, two sites located on Park Street exceed the air quality objective for nitrogen dioxide as prescribed in the Air Quality (Wales) Regulations 2000 and the Air Quality (Amendment) (Wales) Page 222 Regulations 2002. All other locations within Bridgend County Borough continue to meet all other relevant air quality objectives.

He further explained the work around Park Street and town centre area and highlighted the figures relating to NO2 and the action plan following these results following a Do Minimum (DM) and Do Something (DS) model. Further details were highlighted at section 3 of the report.

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning & Regeneration welcomed the report and stated that Bridgend was very fortunate to only have 1 area that did not meet the standards of air quality. He explained that living in London for over 10 years was an eye opener of what poor air quality can to do to the health of residents. It was pleasing to see that action was being taken on the area of concern in Bridgend and looked forward to seeing further detail in an upcoming Cabinet meeting.

The Leader echoed these comments and stated that people in poor air quality areas often suffer with major health concerns and in some cases it can kill. We are lucky in Bridgend that the air quality was of good standard but looked forward to seeing improvements at Park street in the future.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

• Noted the results of air quality monitoring gathered in 2022 and approve the 2023 Annual Progress Report (attached as Appendix 1) for submission as a final version to Welsh Government by 31st December 2023.

• Noted the progress made in developing the Air Quality Action Plan for Park Street and that a separate Cabinet report to approve the final AQAP will be brought to Cabinet in due course.