Having good air quality makes the Falkirk Council area a welcoming place to live, work and visit. It is vitally important for resident's health, the local environment and economy. We work hard to ensure the air quality is the best it possibly can be.

Many factors can affect the quality of air, for example: road transport, home energy use, petrochemical industries or power stations burning fossil fuels creating unwanted airborne emissions.

Falkirk Council's air quality is generally good. However, within localised areas, there can be (occasional) higher levels of air pollution recorded. The main sources of pollution in the Falkirk Council area are tailpipe emissions from road traffic and point source emissions from the industrial area of Grangemouth.

We can all help to improve the air quality in the Falkirk Council area into the future.

Local air quality

Falkirk Council has a duty under the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) process to regularly review and assess air quality in the interest of public health. The process is designed to identify any exceedances of the UK Air Quality Strategy Objectives and to enable Falkirk Council to identify such an area to develop and implement a plan to improve local air quality.

The most recent Falkirk Council LAQM-related reports are as follows:

Air Quality Management Areas

Under section 83(1) of the Environment Act 1995, Falkirk Council has a responsibility to comply with relevant regulations when managing local air quality. The Council completes its Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) duties by managing an extensive air quality monitoring network, assessing results and reporting on areas of existing or anticipated poor air quality - declared via Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA).

More information can be found at the following links:

• Air Quality regulations in relation to LAQM | Air Quality in Scotland
• LAQM and AQMA | Air Quality in Scotland

Falkirk Council currently (as of September 2024) has 1 active AQMAs:

1. Falkirk Town Centre
   Declared 31 January 2013 for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) – annual mean.

Falkirk Council currently (as of September 2024) has 4 revoked AQMAs, these are:

1. Grangemouth
   Declared 01 November 2005 for sulphur dioxide (SO₂) – 15 minute mean. Revoked on 27 September 2024.
2. Falkirk Town Centre Declared 25 January 2013 for particulate matter (PM10) – 24 hour and annual mean. Revoked on 3 March 2023.
3. Haggs

   Declared 18 March 2010 for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) – annual mean. Revoked on 5 October 2021.

4. Banknock

   Declared 18 August 2011 for particulate matter (PM10) – 24 hour and annual mean. Revoked on 7 January 2021.

You can get more information about air quality by calling UK-Air or visiting any of the following websites:

• UK-Air's website
• Defra's website
• Scottish Government's website

Frequently asked questions