Air pollution measurement and monitoring

This page overviews the ways Lancaster City Council monitors air pollution and summarises our results. See also background information about air pollution monitoring.

The council’s Environmental Health Service monitors air pollution to:

• help us review and assess air quality across the district borough
• measure whether air quality standards are being met
• provide good local information for policy decisions
• provide the community with information on the quality of air we breathe

We do this in a number of ways and different locations. We have participated in national monitoring networks for 25 years. We monitored continuously at Water Street in Lancaster from 1998 to 2010. Early in 2011 we introduced two new continuous monitoring stations in Cable Street and Dalton Square, Lancaster. We also use simple, inexpensive techniques to make monthly air pollution measurements in around 50 locations.

Air pollutants measured

The pollutants we measure in one or more places are Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Particulate Matter (PM10).  Locally, the primary source of both pollutants is road transport.

Monitoring results

Current and historic air pollution levels at the two automatic monitoring stations at Dalton Square and Cable Street can be viewed at www.ukairquality.net

Annual reports are available for Cable Street and Dalton Square summarising measurements made by continuous monitoring in the following years:

• 2015 (PDF)
• 2016 (PDF)
• 2017 (PDF)
• 2018 Cable Street (PDF)
• 2018 Dalton Square (PDF)
• 2019 Cable Street (PDF)
• 2019 Dalton Square (PDF)
• 2020 Cable Street (PDF)
• 2020 Dalton Square (PDF)
• 2021 Cable Street (PDF)
• 2022 Dalton Square (PDF)
• 2022 Cable Street (PDF)

Last updated: 03 April 2023