Pollution (Manchester) (Hansard, 24 January 1996)

§ Mr. Clappison

The Government have put in place a number of mechanisms to control pollution which apply throughout the country. The Environment Act 1990 introduced two systems for controlling polluting emissions from industry: integrated pollution control, which limits emissions to all environmental media from large installations; and local authority air pollution control, covering emissions to air from small and medium enterprises. Both these systems apply best available techniques not entailing excessive cost, and authorisations are reviewed periodically. The main control on air pollution from domestic sources is the smoke control areas system, introduced in the Clean Air Act 1956. Emissions from the transport sector are mainly controlled through European Community legislation, and we shall be negotiating new vehicle emission and fuel quality standards for the year 2000 and beyond in the Council of Ministers this year.

The Environment Act 1995 introduced a duty on local authorities to assess and review air quality in their areas, and to establish local air quality management areas where standards or objectives are being or arc likely to he breached. In such areas, authorities must draw up action plans to help bring ambient pollution down to acceptable levels. The Government are currently developing 233W guidance for local authorities to help them discharge those duties.

As regards water quality, in 1994, for the north-west as a whole, 84 per cent. of river and canal length was classed as good or fair compared to 74 per cent. in 1990. More specifically, the Government have sponsored the Mersey basin campaign, a major initiative to clean up the rivers, canals and estuary of the Mersey basin. Increasingly stringent controls have been applied to both direct industrial and sewage discharges and the pollution load in rivers flowing into the estuary has been reduced by 80 per cent. over the last 25 years.