Despite improvements in the last ten years, air quality testing continues at crucial sites in West Lothian.
While the sinister looking equipment remains in place it’s unwelcome in one town but needed in another community.
Linlithgow Councillor Sally Pattle told a recent meeting that villagers in Newton still saw large numbers of lorries using the narrow main street.
Councillors on the Economy, Community Empowerment and Wealth Building PDSP heard that the Air Quality Management Area orders (AQMA) had been revoked last year for the village, along with testing stations in Linlithgow High Street and Broxburn, because of improvements.
But Environmental Health officers stressed that they have a duty to maintain air quality monitoring after councillor Pattle feared it had stopped in Newton.
She told the meeting that villagers continue to have concerns that large numbers of lorries still use the A904 through the village as a short cut to the Queensferry Crossing.
A report to the committee on plans for air quality testing said: “All three AQMA were revoked in 2024 following substantive improvement in air quality, but the Council continues to have a statutory duty to annually report air quality testing results to the Scottish Government and to take proportionate action to fulfil its statutory obligations.”
A year ago, another Linlithgow councillor, Labour’s Tom Conn has asked why ugly testing equipment needed to remain in place after the order was revoked.
At a meeting of the Public and Community Safety PDSP Councillor Conn said: “The air monitor has been very prominent in Linlithgow High Street for the best part of 25 to 30 years. Is it not time that it’s retired if it’s not serving any great purpose?”
The sinister looking testing station, which resembles the ventilation shaft for a wartime deep air raid shelter, sits just yards from the A-listed St Michael’s Well – testament to the 21st century’s effect on the ancient burgh’s thoroughfare.
A spokesperson for the council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that air testing was an ongoing responsibility for the council.
“An Air Quality Management Area was established to cover Newton in 2016. This has since been revoked due to improvements in air quality and air quality objectives being achieved and maintained.
“There are specific air quality standards or objectives which are set out in legislation. Air Quality Management Areas are put in place when these air quality objectives are not being met. They are intended to be temporary arrangements to ensure measures are taken to improve air quality.
“Some locations may be more prone to higher levels of pollution due to different sources of pollution, and other factors at the location which allow the pollution to build up or not disperse quickly. For example, in town locations with regular levels of heavy traffic, and buildings close to either side of the road there is a chance of more pollution building up.
“West Lothian Council has a duty to review areas of the district which might be potential concerns for air quality. Environmental Health has three automatic cabinets for monitoring air quality in West Lothian.”
Data is checked by officers remotely on a daily basis. Air quality monitoring data is publicly available in real time and historically for various sites in West Lothian.
This can be viewed via the Scottish Air Quality website – http://www.scottishairquality.co.uk/.”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
