Air quality consultation

Medway currently has 4 Air Quality Management Areas which are above the annual objective for nitrogen dioxide (a pollutant present in vehicle exhaust emissions).          

The air quality management areas are:

  • central Medway
  • Pier Road, Gillingham
  • High Street, Rainham
  • Medway Four Elms Hill.

Reducing road transport emissions within the Air Quality Management Areas and the wider area is a key air quality priority to help towards achieving our air quality objectives.  

Tackling the central Medway, Pier Road (Gillingham) and Rainham High Street Air Quality Management Areas falls under the current Air Quality Action Plan. This was approved by Cabinet in December 2015.

Four Elms Hill draft Air Quality Action Plan consultation 2022

We declared a fourth new Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) at Four Elms Hill, Chattenden in October 2017.

We have now developed a draft Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) for the area to work towards improving the air quality.

The draft AQAP identifies 3 key priority areas:

  • emissions from cars
  • emissions from heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and light goods vehicles (LGVs)
  • emissions from buses.

There are 16 measures which have been identified to improve air quality within the Four Elms Hill AQMA.

Having produced the draft action plan, the council was required to carry out a statutory consultation process to seek the views of stakeholders. The consultation ran from Monday 7 March to Sunday 24 April 2022.

View the draft Air Quality Action Plan.