Policy information sourced from the Waltham Forest Local Plan

88 Air Pollution

New development should ensure the avoidance of any adverse air pollution impacts and aim to improve air quality in the borough by:

A. Ensuring development meets, and where possible improves upon, air quality neutral standards over its lifetime and does not contribute to a decrease in air quality during the construction or operation stage;

B. Undertaking Air Quality Assessments (AQAs) for the following types of development:

  1. All major development, unless there is clear evidence that transport and building emissions will be less than the existing use;
  2. Development in areas of substandard air quality and changes of use which would result in the introduction of sensitive receptors to areas of poor air quality;
  3. Development in close proximity to sensitive uses; and
  4. Developments which involve significant demolition and construction;

C. Ensuring development is air quality positive in Air Quality Focus Areas;

D. Assessing existing air quality and avoiding locating sensitive uses in areas exposed to air pollution;

E. Minimising exposure to air pollution through the considered positioning and design of new development, considering private, communal, public open space and child play spaces;

F. Incorporating on-site measures to improve air quality, or, where it can be demonstrated that on-site provision is impractical or inappropriate, securing off-site measures to improve local air quality, subject to the demonstration of equivalent air quality benefits; and

G. Ensuring that where major application proposals would not achieve the air quality neutral benchmark, the applicant will be expected to make a financial contribution as set out in the Developer Contributions Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

For more information please see the Waltham Forest Local Plan