Air quality and clean air proposals
This page was last updated on 22 November 2021
Rotherham has been legally mandated to ensure that areas that have been identified as not legally compliant with air quality limits are brought into compliance by 2021.
The Council has identified part of the A629 Wortley Road which is currently not compliant, between the roundabout at Wilton Gardens and Bradgate Lane (on the hill where the terraced properties are). The Council is therefore considering what action might be taken to improve air quality at this location and is currently consulting on a proposal to ban HGVs on the northbound side of the road (from the town centre to the motorway).
As part of this work, a wider review of traffic movements in the area has been undertaken and the Council plans to introduce a permanent weight restriction on the section of Droppingwell Road between the site entrance and Blackburn Road (to the south).
The Council has looked at any potential impact of the operation of the site itself on air quality in the future and concluded that it is unlikely that vehicles movements, either on the site or off it, pose a risk to health in terms of air quality.
- Nitrogen dioxide (NOx) – National air quality standards deem levels below 40ug/m3 as safe. The levels of nitrogen dioxide on Droppingwell Road (near to the M1) and at the junction of Droppingwell Road and Wortley Road are well below this limit despite significant numbers of vehicles using these roads every day. It is unlikely that the increase in vehicles associated with Droppingwell Tip re-opening will lead to the national standard being breached, given many more vehicles than that currently use Wortley Road itself.
- Silica dust - Exposure limits for silica dust only apply to close occupational exposure, in which case the limit for silica dust is 0.1mg/m3. Only a small fraction of breathable dust is silica. The highest total breathable dust level measured anywhere across the whole of Rotherham (even our most industrial areas) is only around one-fifth of the silica dust workplace exposure limit. The likelihood of any significant exposure to silica from the site is therefore negligible, even with increased vehicle movements. Excessive dust coming from operations on the site would be regulated by the Environment Agency through the environmental permit.