9. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the expectations placed on local authorities as a result of the local air quality management in Wales guidance? OAQ(5)0155(ERA)

I issued new guidance this month and will follow it up with a letter to all incoming local authority administrations next week, highlighting their air quality management duties and the importance of following the principles of our future generations legislation, and of meeting deadlines setting guidance for reporting and action planning.

Thank you for that very helpful answer, actually. It was 15 June, I think, actually, that you issued the guidance, and in that guidance there’s an obligation on local authorities to plan for the long term and prevent problems from getting worse or arising in the first place. This is before your letter, but just four days later on 19 June, Swansea council’s cabinet member for the environment said that the local authority is fully compliant with all air quality legislation. Now, obviously, following guidance helps people comply with legislation, so considering that Swansea’s monitoring system, which is meant to reduce localised air pollution, is still not up and running despite being installed in 2012, can you say that Swansea council is complying with legislation? Perhaps, does your guidance need to go a little further in its explicitness, if that’s a word? Thank you.

You’re right; I did issue policy guidance on 15 June because that coincided with Clean Air Day. So, that was the reason for doing that, and I wanted, as I say, to bring their management regimes into line. I will be writing to them again next week, so specifically in Swansea’s case, I can ask those specific points.

Sadly, I’m afraid that Cardiff is not compliant with air quality legislation, and the spotlight was on Cardiff in a television programme yesterday about the amount of housing that’s being developed around Cardiff without the transport links to go with it. Is it your view that local authorities, in carrying out their planning duties, need to bear in mind the need for connectivity when they’re developing new communities, so that they’re not actually massively increasing their pollution problem? And, obviously, the metro plays a huge part in ensuring that we aren’t all drowning in poisonous air.

Thank you. I picked up today in the media that the leader of Cardiff city council was talking about the need for more public transport use and cycling in relation to the issue you raise. We know transport, really, does not help with air quality, particularly in urban areas. We had a debate yesterday on decarbonisation of the public sector. Well, this is so much a part of the decarbonisation agenda. I mentioned that we’ve set up a ministerial task and finish group, which the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure sits on, and one of the things we’re going to discuss at our next meeting is low-carbon vehicles, for instance, because it’s so important that as we make that transition into a low-carbon economy and in relation to transport, these are taken into account in relation to our air quality.

Air quality on Neath Road in Hafod in Swansea is amongst the worst in Wales, due to both its importance as the main road from the north-east into Swansea city centre, and its topography. I welcome the Morfa distributor road, which will reduce air pollution on Neath Road. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree that a bypass is not the solution to all problems of poor air quality, but, in some cases and certain circumstances where the road is a major road and the topography is such that nothing else can be done, that it can be?

I agree with you, but I have to say we do need to do more to tackle emissions from vehicles in urban areas, so I very much welcome measures that do help reduce public exposure to air pollution, and that includes infrastructure projects such as you refer to. I know the Morfa distributor road in Swansea is due to be completed in the very near future. That’s been supported by Welsh Government via our local transport fund in recent years.