Under EU legislation, the UK is required to assess ambient air for levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and to report to the European Commission on an annual basis. Detailed reports on the assessments are available from the air quality archive at:
www.airquality.co.uk
For the purpose of implementing EU legislation, the UK is divided up into 43 agglomeration zones (areas with a contiguous population of over 250,000 as specified by the air quality directives) and non-agglomeration zones. There are 28 agglomeration zones and 15 non-agglomeration zones.
There are a number of locations within England where:
(1) annual mean concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are in excess of 40 microgrammes/m3; and/or
(2) there are more than 18 occurrences of hourly mean NO2 >200 microgrammes/m3 in a year.
The locations where points 1 and/or 2 apply have been identified are in the following tables, with reference to both monitored (measured) and modelled (predicted) NO2 data.
Monitoring data for 2008 are given in table 1. The modelling assessment for 2008 is not due to be completed until the end of the summer, so 2007 results are given in table 2.
Site name/location Site type Annual mean NO2 (microgrammes/m3) Number hours NO2> 200 microgrammes/m3 Liverpool Queen's Drive Roadside 40 6 London Westminster Urban background 40 1 Cambridge Roadside Roadside 42 0 Newcastle Cradlewell Roadside 42 0 Manchester Piccadilly Urban centre 43 12 London Hillingdon Suburban 51 1 Oxford Centre Roadside Roadside 51 3 London Bloomsbury Urban centre 55 0 Bristol Old Market Roadside 62 5 Tower Hamlets Roadside 63 0 Bath Roadside Roadside 65 10 London Cromwell Road 2 Roadside 67 1 Bury Roadside Roadside 69 4 Camden Kerbside Kerbside 76 72 London Marylebone Road Kerbside 115 822
Zone/agglomeration Road length/km where annual mean NO2 >40 microgrammes/m3 (roadside locations) Area/km2 where annual mean NO2 > 40 microgrammes/m3 (urban background locations) Greater London Urban Area 1,600 162 West Midlands Urban Area 385 5 Greater Manchester Urban Area 426 — West Yorkshire Urban Area 162 — Tyneside 76 — Liverpool Urban Area 130 — Sheffield Urban Area 105 — Nottingham Urban Area 53 — Bristol Urban Area 42 — Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton 7 — Leicester Urban Area 52 — Portsmouth Urban Area 24 — Teesside Urban Area 18 — The Potteries 34 — Bournemouth Urban Area 11 — Reading/Wokingham Urban Area 19 — Coventry/Bedworth 17 — Kingston upon Hull 32 — Southampton Urban Area 23 1 Birkenhead Urban Area 17 — Southend Urban Area 11 — Preston Urban Area 6 — Eastern 131 6 South West 77 — South East 197 3 East Midlands 104 — North West and Merseyside 279 — Yorkshire and Humberside 260 — West Midlands 90 — North East 69 —