Neasden Goods Depot falls within an Air Quality Management Area declared by the London borough of Brent. Defra has provided supplementary credit approval to the London borough of Brent to help fund a detailed assessment of air pollution in the vicinity of the depot. This assessment has identified elevated levels of particulate matter (PM10 ) in the vicinity of the goods depot. This appears to be caused mainly by waste management operations, regulated by the Environment Agency, located at the depot.The Environment Agency has been taking action to improve the standard of operations at Neasden Goods Depot, more recently in conjunction with the London borough of Brent.There are four sites at Neasden Goods Yard, three Waste Management Licences (WML) and one End of Life Vehicles (ELV) licence.To date the Environment Agency has:"undertaken unannounced weekly inspections to all three sites holding a WML. During these, areas requiring attention to site infrastructure and operations are identified and improvements required;""issued warning letters when necessary;""served legal enforcement notices that have demanded specific actions be undertaken;""served legal enforcement notices that have suspended operations when appropriate; and""carried out comprehensive enforcement action against the site we believe to be the worst performing of the three that is contributing significantly to the pollution of the local environment."The above actions have resulted in a number of improvements being made:"buildings are now constructed to contain the majority of waste handling operations at the three sites;""large areas of concrete hard standing has been laid (where previously, significant areas of the goods yard were mud and hardcore) at all four sites as well as the communal haul road;""improved drainage has been installed;""dust suppression systems have been installed, used and maintained; and,""daily road sweeping of service yard and section of public highway."The Environment Agency has recently commissioned independent environmental consultants to undertake a dust-monitoring programme. The monitoring—planned from July to September 2005—will clarify the contribution that the licensed sites make to PM10 levels in the locality. This dust survey compliments that which the local authority has already put in place.In addition the London borough of Brent has improved the pavement infrastructure on the highway near the goods depot and is regularly washing the road to reduce emissions of PM caused by road traffic.The Environment Agency continues its dialogue with all four operators, landlord and London borough of Brent. The result is a series of improvements have been delivered and further works is planned to tackle dust emissions.London borough of Brent is continuing to monitor air pollution levels in the vicinity of Neasden Goods Depot to assess the results of the emissions control measures. Monitoring data are published on the world wide web at www.londonair.org.uk.