Air Pollution

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 29 November 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:56, 29 November 2017

Can I congratulate you on your new job as well? Can I begin by saying that scrutiny has been brought to bear and, actually, the dreaded Nowcaster system in Swansea council, with which I appreciate you may not personally be familiar, is now up and running after several years of delay, and advising drivers in real time whether the air quality in that particular part of Swansea is safe enough to drive through. It doesn't tell them when the air quality is good enough, but it does tell them when it's bad. Your department has actually refused a further application for funding for this particular project. I appreciate you may not know much about it yourself, but do you think your department would be more likely to support an application to expand upon the Nowcaster system if the data collected by the machines could more widely inform traffic management in the city—for example, providing evidence for a Swansea bay regional metro, perhaps—or if it could help with the clean air framework in helping create enforceable targets for particulate reduction? Thank you.