As I understand it Wokingham Borough Council has received a £259,000 grant from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to enable it to improve air quality across the borough.

1. Under the Freedom of Information Act and as a local resident, I would like to know how this money has been spent to date and what the future plans are for using this funding.
The Public Protection Partnership were awarded £259,000 grant funding from the Defra Clean Air Fund in 2021. The Public Protection Partnership (PPP) is a shared service delivering Environmental Health, Licensing and Trading Standards on behalf of two authorities (Partners), Bracknell Forest Council and West Berkshire Council. Formerly the shared service also covered Wokignham Borough Council who have since divorced the agreement, but have retained some Air Quality services including the delivery of this project in the Wokingham area as originally planned. To date £132k has been spent.

Funding was awarded to establish an anti-idling project with a behaviour change campaign (discussed further in this response), and to monitor particulate matter concentrations (more specifically, PM2.5) at those schools closest to the Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) throughout the three authorities. In total, 42 schools (14 from each authority) were to have their PM2.5 concentrations monitored over a 3-month indicative monitoring period, with monitoring and reports provided by AECOM following their successful tender to provide the services. So far, completed reports have been provided for 23 of the 42 schools. These reports look to investigate concentrations at schools and to identify potential external factors which may be influencing them. Further, the reports also look to advise mitigation options where identified as appropriate. Monitoring is ongoing at the remaining schools, with the next step in this work stream being to discuss the results with schools and decide upon any necessary further actions. At the schools monitored to date, indicative PM2.5 concentrations have been examined as low and achieving compliance against the National Air Quality Objectives set by Defra, which must be met as a legal requirement by all authorities.

Alongside monitoring PM2.5 concentrations at schools, an anti-idling behaviour change campaign is underway. Through the funding provided PPP have procured a behaviour change specialist, WSP, to support in the delivery of the campaign. Procured in early 2022 WSP have so far conducted an extensive Baseline Research Report which brings together research, surveys, literature review, and workshop findings to examine the successes of other anti-idling schemes in the UK and abroad, and how this information should shape the campaign launched by PPP. Having completed the Baseline Research Report WSP then moved onto designing a suit of materials which would be used for the campaign including signage, social media messaging, presentations for schools and other guidance. PPP are due to launch with these materials over the winter period, after some delays in receiving approval on the signage from communications departments. Once the signage is installed WSP will be conducting period monitoring to better understand the impact the messaging is having and if any changes should be made. These reports will be received in 2023.

To support the behaviour change campaign, PPP have also established two competitions for schools; an anti-idling ‘Bumper Sticker’ competition, and the NO2 ‘Biggest Loser’ competition. The anti-idling bumper sticker competition encouraged primary and secondary schools to produce a design for a sticker that could be placed on the inside of a rear windscreen to encourage the driver behind them to switch off their engine when stationary and appropriate to do so. The winning design for this completion came from a year 6 pupil of Ascot Heath Primary school, Bracknell. So far over 1,000 copies of the sticker have been sent out to schools, businesses, and residents. The second competition involves monitoring of nitrogen dioxide (NO2¬) concentrations at those 42 (14 from each authority) schools located closest to the AQMAs in each authority. PPP are currently underway collecting a years’ baseline data at the schools using diffusion tubes ready for the competition to begin in 2023. The competition will encourage schools to engage in activities that help to reduce pollutant concentrations around their school – by running frequent school streets for example. The competition will be assessed by which school achieves the biggest percentage reduction in NO2, and they will be rewarded with a contribution towards a bike shed or other equipment/infrastructure (to be agreed) which helps to facilitate active travel.