How Councils are Facing Pollution in the United Kingdom - Term Paper Example

How Councils are Facing Pollution in the UK Pollution is one of the key concerns for many residents within the realms of UK and the councils have been working on the investigation to improvise this issue over a long period of time. It is well-known a fact that urban areas have a tremendous influence on the environment and, being a hub for majority of the global citizenry, they have the greatest impact in terms of exploitation of resources and pollution of all kinds. The UK contributes to a substantial percentage of employment as well as economic activities and, as a result, its impact on the environment is noteworthy. Hence, there should be a significant investigation on how to make the most of the quality attributes of the environment so as to reduce their negative influences at the same time. This paper efficaciously delineates the issues concerned with the pollution in the United Kingdom, along with the problems encountered by the councils to combat them. Moreover, this paper talks about pertinent measures to be undertaken by the authorities of UK in order to transform the society in to a healthy and sustainable place to reside. Introduction The Department of Environment, Transport and other Regions states that clean air is a fundamental component of a good eminence of life and people have the authority to expect that the air they take in will not be harmful to them (Report, 2000). Post the haze issue of the mid-twentieth century, the British government has put in tremendous effort in to the management of air quality, which has resulted in substantial reduction of pollution in the UK, in comparison to other countries of the world. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done so as to uphold and improvise the quality of air. According to the ENDS Report, one of the key steps forward in the enhancement of the quality of air, thereby, reducing pollution was the Environment Act which introduced an incorporated structure with regards to the handling of national as well as local air pollution having its basal on the health-based norms (ENDS Report, 1997). Moreover, it also marked the budge of a source-centralized approach to the one which concentrated on the reduction of exposure. As a point in fact, the central role was handed over to the local authorities and they were expected to forecast whether pollution would possibly tend to transcend the air quality norms by the year 2005, thereby, outlining the strategies to lessen the concentrations in chief places. According to Xing, it is a hard fact to study that time is running out for the local authorities to keep up with the objectives of pollution under the regime of Local Air Quality Management or LAQM (Xing, 2004). There are only a handful of councils with top pollution grades which have generated action strategies to address the problems of reduction of pollution. Other than the councils which face the difficulties of attaining the objectives on time, there are various councils of smaller conurbations which also require an appreciable exercise of the air quality management in order to preserve the health of environment and people. As a result, the upshot of this research would provide us with a good example to manage the intricacies and facilitate the smaller cities to learn from various experiences as well. Problems faced by Councils in managing Pollution The influence of urban areas on the environment is quite substantial for the reason that the urban vicinity is a hub for majority of the global citizenry. Also, it tremendously influences in terms of resource exploitation and pollution of all land-utilization types (Study, 2005). In the UK, the urban areas comprise of approximately 90 percent of the citizenry, thereby, donating a comparable quantity of employment as well as economic activity. In societal expressions, UK is considered as much of an urban locality, and as a result, the influence of urban areas on the environment is quite noteworthy. Hence, there should be an analysis of the utmost maximization of the quality of such environments, thereby, lessening their effects. Smaller cities or localities have their own distinct attributes and problems in the air quality management. It is a prominent fact that the issues which are encountered by the urban authorities are quite disparate as compared to the ones encountered by the rural complements. It can be conjectured that the metropolitan authorities possess more efficacious structures for handling the challenges of air quality strategic planning. Various researches in the context of urban and rural authorities give a lucid inference about the disparities in the management of air quality existing between the urban and the rural areas. In the intervening time, the conditions of the middle as well as small-sized cities differ accordingly from the big ones. As a matter of fact, it appears that the quality of air in smaller cities is quite substantial as compared to the metropolitans, and as a result, some of the intricate procedures with respect to the quality management which are appropriate for the big cities, do not complement the small cities. More to it, according to the ENDS Report, there are just a few authorities who've had the proficiency of air-quality modeling with no considerably know-how of the validation of these models (ENDS Report, 2002a). Spaced out from the veteran reserve, there are yet other difficulties and hurdles for the councils of smaller towns that have been discussed later. The quality of air and climatic transformation appear to be linked in an inextricably associated. After all, we are entirely cognizant of the factuality that the combustion of fossil fuels is the key source of both Carbon Dioxide as well as local air pollutants. The management of UK brings a new set of challenges which, at the same time, provide a better comprehension of the trans-boundary pollution and non-conventional sources of air pollutants which is an acknowledged problem all throughout. The thickly populated South-East quarter of England which is inclusive of London, faces meticulous pressures which are a consequence of the demands of its citizenry. Approximately one-fourth of all the residents of the UK reside in the urban areas of this segment of England. For the reason that, it is one of the most prosperous parts of the UK with a considerably high grade of utilization of the resources per head of the citizenry, it is quite evident that this segment tends to face various pressures with regards to air, water, and sewage amendment capacity, if not action is taken to generate new reserves, thereby, lessening their stipulations by means of customizing the behaviour and improvising efficaciousness (Study, 2005). Generally, the gradations of urban air pollution alleviated with the decline in the heavy industries which has led to lessened emissions to air by the air quality administration. Fluctuations often play a part year by year which delineate that, though the pollution caused by sulphur dioxide has decreased over the past fifty years approximately, there has been a noteworthy increment in pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide etc., which are a consequence of the swift development of vehicle exploitation (Study, 2005). The corporate Fit: Legislation and guidance Bettie et al suggest that various authorities in the UK lack the expressed concern about the fundamental implements and know-how so as to undertake the air quality management liabilities in an efficacious manner (Bettie et al, 2001). It is essential for the laws to facilitate with a structure for the regulation of the environment. As noticed by Xing, the Environment Act 1995 suggests the lawful reinforcement for the local air quality management framework for the UK by means of requesting the Secretary of the State to arrange and put out a statement which comprises of the policies with the feature of the evaluation as well as management of the quality of air as soon as possible (Xing, 2004). The hub of the national air quality strategy is the location of health-based norms for a sequence of pollutants. The various pollutants are chiefly inclusive of benzene, butadiene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, lead, sulphur dioxide. If in case, the grades of these pollutants appear to be above the level in some locales, then these areas are declared as Air Quality Management Areas, and based on the legislations of the central government, the local authorities are supposed to issue their own rules in order to regulate the pollution and attain their objectives on time. In the early on, the basic liability for the local authorities should be the assessment and implementation of the strategies related to the air quality. It may involve the gauging of air-pollution and an attempt to forecast the way it will transform in the upcoming times. The chief aim of such a review is to assure that the air quality objectives of the nation will be efficaciously attained throughout the UK by the pertinent time limit. The Environment Act 1995 suggests a framework with regards to the management of the air quality with a guidance to carry out a reliable and cost-effective review as well as evaluation of current and future air quality on a local base. The commitment of various Councils of the UK towards the sustainability is referred to as a practical approach towards the assurance that the new-fangled development strategies produce least impact on the natural resources, thereby, seeking to reduce the pollution gradations wherever possible. It is significant for the Councils to make use of the policies which imitate pertinent local, strategic, as well as regional and national strategies, chiefly in places where the influences and regulations transcend the regional constraints (Royal Borough of Kingston, 2005). The government of UK has put to place some national aims and targets so as to recycle a quarter of the house-hold waste, which considerably tends to increase with pertinent time intervals set accordingly. The local councils have a major part to play in attaining those targets for which they seek provision of recycling facilities which are accessible to all the segments of society. Nevertheless, if at all, the recycling is supposed to appropriately add to the improvisation of the environment, it is significant for it to not result in tremendous environmental influence. Hence, the councils of UK prefer the provision of modular recycling of the collection points where the use of can be amalgamated with other associated activities by means of having an understandable and appropriate dissemination of the locations all throughout the area. Such recycling plans will assist in informing the councils to make pertinent decisions on the issues. As we have already discussed above, the urban as well as the countryside tassels are incessantly affected by pollution from various pollutants. As a result, it is quite impractical to construe to the fact that this can be entirely wiped out. Nonetheless, it is significant for the pollution gradations to be examined with noteworthy establishments of thresholds so that it is easy for the councils to put off the developments which may lead to improper pollution grades. Moreover, the councils are supposed to bring in to use the enforcement measures in suitable areas which would encourage more sustainable usage of natural resources in new-fangled development. The entire regions for setting out the stage for councils to perform are acknowledged with the Air Quality Management Area or AQMA which assists in setting out a sequence of measures for the councils to improve the quality of air and is mainly inclusive of the measures to lessen the amount of traffic on the roads along with cleaning up the exhaust emissions from the vehicles on road. Conclusions Regardless of various improvisations, there still remains an overabundance of pressures which require a comprehensive approach to find out various solutions. The Councils in UK mention global sustainability as a call for stabilization in the environment. It is considered that various challenges encountered by the urban government imitate such issues so as to call for action across all grades of the society, from Government all through to the common man. A major subject is the motivation and education amongst the citizenry to transform the behaviours for which the government needs to lay a considerable part for the welfare of the environment and society. Moreover, in order to alleviate the negative influences, more attempts need to be made so as to reduce the digs by means of wider exploitation of technology. Researches, in time, provide with efficacious use of treatment, thereby, reducing the negative influences caused by pollution. Last, but not the least, the councils require the generation of awareness regarding the utility networks amongst the strategic planners so as to make sure that there is adequate scope for new-fangled developments with easy accessibility for the upholding. Even though, there have been many improvisations in the urban vicinities over recent times, there still remains an assortment of issues that incessantly possess negative impact on the environment. They are inclusive of the quality of air, chiefly in relation to the traffic disruptions caused by vehicles, along with the pollution caused by other resources such as light, water, and land. With efficacious provision and constant management of the urban councils, the curtailment of resource use by means of more upheld techniques along with waste lessening technologies will help in transforming the society leading to a better environment to reside in. References 1. Beattie, C. I., Longhurst,J. W. S., and Woodfield, N. K. 2001, Air quality management: evolution of policy and practice in the UK as exemplified be the experience of English local government, Atmospheric Environment, 35. 2. ENDS Report. 1997, Labour attacks DTI "sabotage" of air quality regulations, Ends Report, MARCH 1997, Issue No. 266. 3. ENDS Report. 2002a, Air quality management: Lessons from the first round, Ends Report, FEBRUARY 2002, Issue No. 325. 4. Report. 2000, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 5. Royal Borough of Kingston. 2005, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames UDP: First Alteration. Chapter 10 Minerals, Waste, Energy and Pollution Control. Royal Borough of Kingston, London. 6. Study. 2005, Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution Study on the Urban Environment. CIWEM, London. 7. Xing, Weinuo. 2004, Good Practice in Local Management of Air Quality in Smaller Cities of the UK. University of East Anglia, Norwich. Read More