Air Quality

Guidelines for local authorities to use when considering the impact of new developments on air quality, and about the air quality management areas in Suffolk.

About Air Quality Management

All local authorities in Suffolk have a duty to monitor and assess air quality in the county and produce annual reports. They must consider what impact a new development will have on the air quality of an area.

Air quality in Suffolk is generally good but there are nine Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) where pollution caused by road traffic breaches the National Objective Limits. For details of these areas contact the borough or district councils.

When assessing planning applications in relation to their potential impact on the local air quality, Suffolk Local Authorities refer to the most recent guidance from Environmental Protection UK (EPUK) and the institute of Air Quality Management (IAQM) to aid their assessments.

This national guidance from EPUK and IAQM is used in preference to the 2011 Suffolk Supplementary Planning Guidance.

Download Land-Use Planning & Development Control: Planning For Air Quality (PDF, 729KB). Latest version is from January 2017, published by EPUK and IAQM.

You can also view the list of guidance documents from IAQM.

Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health, and it is estimated that it contributes to around 40,000 deaths a year nationally.

Anti-idling events are behaviour change campaigns which help reduce localised air pollution caused by motorists who leave their engines running when parked. Local authorities, councillors and volunteers work to educate both motorists and pedestrians.

Our approach is to invite drivers to join our campaign and switch off their engines when parked. When approached in a friendly way, we find that over 80% of drivers switch off when asked, and many pledge to give up the idling habit for good.

Free anti-idling posters, toolkits and information

Download and print:

anti-idling banner design (PDF, 1.5MB)
car sticker design (PDF, 1.4MB)
anti-idling leaflet (PDF, 3.4MB)
air quality leaflet (PDF, 567KB)
anti-idling toolkit recruiter pack (PDF, 3MB)
anti-idling event volunteer pack (PDF, 2.6MB)
Suffolk idling poster (PDF, 1.5MB)

How local councils are supporting the anti-idling campaign

For Clean Air Day, the County, District and Borough councils in Suffolk are working together to promote an anti-idling campaigns outside schools, championing and supporting Business with the Clean Air Business Accreditation and Idling Action campaign to develop and promote clean air practices.

A competition was held for school children to promote clean air day with a winner from a local school chosen who produced a wonderful video.

Improving knowledge and awareness of air quality has been at the forefront of SCCs air quality actions over the last year and are building on this with a workshop with leaders from planning and transport that was held this week and the launch of an Air Quality section on the Green Suffolk website. In addition to this stands at local health settings have been set up to share information and awareness of the negative impacts poor Air Quality has on residents health.

For additional resources related to Clean Air Day and Air Quality in general please visit the Global Action Plan Website.

Useful toolkits and information for schools ready for Clean Air Day on 16 June 2022

Download and print:

Comic strip template (PDF, 202KB)
Lesson plan (PDF, 328KB)
Lichen bio-indicator observation (PDF, 422KB)
My clean air Superhero (PDF, 239KB)
Clean Air Day presentation (1.2MB)

Schools or organisations can sign up to the national Clean Air Day campaign for free at www.cleanairday.org.uk