A NEW station to monitor air quality along Warrington’s busiest road is being sought.

Plans have been submitted to Warrington Borough Council seeking lawful development consent for the installation of an air quality monitoring station.

This would be on grassed area between Toll Bar Road in Orford and Winwick Road, with the application submitted by the Environment Agency.

It states: “As part of the UK-wide automatic and urban-rural air quality monitoring network (AURN), an additional building is to be sited at the given location to monitor a suite of air pollutants.

“The AURN consists of more than 170 monitoring sites across the UK, with this site being established as a new air quality monitoring site for fine particulates.

“A high number of these sites are being installed across England in response to the adoption of the Environment Act.

“This enhancement to the existing AURN is based around the monitoring of PM2.5, which is harmful to human health.”

It is said that the Environment Act sets a requirement for new targets or limit values to be set with regard to PM2.5 concentrations in specific areas.

“This enhancement to the AURN is to make up part of the evidence base to compare monitored concentrations against these new targets,” plans add.

“The proposal is listed as permanent, but in the event the site has to be decommissioned, the land can easily be returned to its previous condition.

“These tend to be sited for 10-plus years, and for this enhancement we are looking to monitor past 2040, in-line with a national population exposure reduction target.

“The installation will not alter the existing operation of the existing land, and through the monitoring, it will be providing a benefit to the wider community.”

Plans are to be decided on by the council in due course.