Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh

Development in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a city of significant cultural and political importance for Scotland. With an economy originally built from its success in the brewing and printing industries, Edinburgh is home to the largest GDP of all Scottish settlements. It is renowned for its contribution to the arts, with the Fringe festival alone attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists every summer, contributing over £200 million to the UK’s economy annually.

The city has many major developments in the works,  such as the £80 million Edinburgh Arena, which will provide the city with its first large capacity indoor arena. Other exciting plans include a major redevelopment of the Leith waterfront, with an upgrade to the existing Ocean Terminal shopping centre and over 300 new apartments being built at Ocean Drive.

With such growth, comes more people, buildings, vehicles and consequently, an environmental impact, of which air pollution is a main player. Given that poor air quality is now the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, it is essential that the effect from such soaring growth is managed effectively. Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh are a crucial part of the development process to enable a sustainable and clean air future for local residents.

Air Quality in Edinburgh

Air quality in Edinburgh has vastly improved in recent years, with the city meeting air quality objectives since 2022. However, Edinburgh contains some of the country’s most polluted streets and further reductions in pollutant concentrations will improve health throughout the city.

In May 2022, Edinburgh introduced its Low Emission Zone, which imposes charges to non-compliant vehicles in the Old Town, New Town, South Side and West End. This forms part of the city’s Air Quality Action Plan, which also includes measures to improve public transport such as expansion of the tram network.

It is crucial that developments continue to support an improvement in air quality. This should be managed through sound determination and effective mitigation of air quality impacts associated with proposals. This is why Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh are needed.

Air Quality Assessments for Planning

Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh are now required in support of nearly all planning applications for new developments. Typically, these comprise assessment of three main elements. These are:

• Potential exposure of future occupiers to harmful pollution levels.
• The impact of emissions from vehicles travelling to and from the scheme.
• The impact of dust emissions generated during construction.

Addressing these as part of your application could be the deciding factor for its success or refusal.

Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh

The success of your planning application could be aided by Redmore Environmental’s experience undertaking Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh. You will gain advice on planning applications and discharging conditions to addressing consultation responses and public comments. We have produced Air Quality Assessments in Edinburgh for residential and educational schemes, as well as industrial and commercial facilities. Last year alone, over 500 assessments were completed in support of developments similar to yours.

Across Edinburgh, we have been involved in a number of exciting projects in recent years. These include:

• Bonnington Road Lane, Edinburgh – Demolition of the existing buildings and development of 527 residential units, 341m² of retail use, 633m³ of business use and 133m³ for a bike café.
• Newcraighall Primary School, Edinburgh – Construction of a new primary school and associated infrastructure. This formed a part of the wider Newcraighall masterplan.
• Liberton High School, Edinburgh – Demolition of the existing school and subsequent construction of a replacement secondary school as well as a Geneal Practitioner surgery, community facilities, car and cycle parking, and landscaping works.

Air Quality Assessment Services

Our air quality experts specialise in all aspects of air quality consultancy. Those relating to planning include:

• Air Quality Assessments in support of planning applications.
• Air Quality Assessments in support of Environmental Permit applications.
• Environmental Impact Assessments.
• Dispersion Modelling Assessments.
• Odour Assessments.
• Construction Dust Risk Assessments and Management Plans.
• Low Emissions Strategies.

Additional Services

We also have expertise in the following areas:

• Bioaerosol Risk Assessments.
• Ambient Air Quality Monitoring.
• BREEAM Indoor Air Quality Assessments.
• Indoor air quality testing.
• Kitchen Odour Assessments.
• Ecological and Ammonia Assessments.
• Local Air Quality Management reports.
• Air Quality Constraints and Screening Opinions.
• Dust and Odour Management Plans.
• Expert Witness.

Get in Touch

If you are concerned about air quality or require an Air Quality Assessment in Edinburgh undertaking to support a planning application for your development, then please get in touch today to discuss how we can help you ensure permission is granted.