Air Quality

A little while back I wrote a post on air quality and how some of the different government organisations were helping us on this matter. It was a pretty interesting piece on how biological items were used to help maintain air quality here in Wales.  As I was writing it, I found this website called the Air Quality in Wales Forum.  It has every council in Wales as a member.  Interesting, isn't it?  So I decided that I would probe this and find out more about it.

First off I sent all the councils in Wales the same questions:

1) How much does it cost to be a member of Air Quality Wales

2) What are the requirements to be a member of Air Quality Wales

The reasons for the questions are the same as always.  If we know how much it costs, then we can see what our money is being spent on. We can also determine what is is the council HAVE to do to ensure that the air we breathe is clean enough too.   

First things first, normally I wait until about sixteen of the councils have got back to me before I start to write, this one I have about six responses and they all same the same thing, so I am going to assume that the other sixteen will say the same.

Secondly the forum is run by the Welsh Assembly.  The cost to run it is put out to competitive tender. You can find out more about that on the link that I provided.

Magic Mike from Monmouth was the first to get back to me and gave me all the information that I needed (Well, pointed me in the right direction).  First off membership to the forum is free.  All council join it purely to help us get a better quality of air from the environment. Isn't that pretty cool?  Do they have this sort of thing in Scotland or England?  I do not know but it would be interesting to find out!

To my next question, what are the requirements.  The Wales Air Forum says about it requirements in their business plan. It’s there to help to educate, cross reference and improve the air quality.  It’s there to make sure that the council are looking at ways of publishing data on air quality, in a sort of open data kind of way.  That’s pretty good going isn't it?  

I find this amazing because it is not something that I would have even thought about.  This forum is the top get air quality up, stay up, and find new ways of getting it higher.  All this for nothing.  In fact, all the councils have to do is to find new ways to improve YOUR air quality and share them.  That pretty good going!  I wonder what other things that councils are doing without our knowledge for free...