To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2008, Official Report, columns 2270-71W, on air pollution: East of England, what funds each local authority in the East of England has received from the Department’s air quality grant programme; and how many individual grants were made in the East of England under the programme in each of the last three years. (193280)

The air quality grant programme is a capital grant scheme established under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003. The following table details the air quality grant payments made in the last three financial years to local authorities in the East of England.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2008, Official Report, columns 2270-71W, on air pollution: East of England, how many areas formerly designated as air quality management areas have had that designation lifted in each year since 1997. (193281)

Local authorities can amend or revoke an existing air quality management area order where it appears from a subsequent air quality review that the air quality standards and objectives are being achieved and are likely to continue to be achieved within the designated area.

Since 1997, seven local authorities in the East of England have revoked air quality management areas, as shown in table 1. Where a local authority had designated more than one individual air quality management area, or one single larger area, the authority only revoked the area where the objectives were achieved. Following the revocation, some local authorities declared further air quality management areas in different areas within their borough where air quality objectives were not being achieved. These are shown in table 2.