Air quality obligation shrouded in mystery

That’s the message of a feature article examining the requirement which is set to be published in the April issue of Port Strategy.

In the article, the British Ports Association’s Mark Simmonds, head of policy and external affairs at the organisation, said that even with a UK Government extension to the deadline for ports to submit plans — under which interim strategies will be due by December and final plans due a year after issuance of the guidelines — the timeline is very tight.

“My main concern is that we don’t know which ports are covered,” Mr Simmonds said.

“The [UK Government’s] Department for Transport is not clear whether it is talking about harbour authorities or terminals — it hasn’t defined what a port is.”

Air quality policy is said to apply to ports handling 1m tonnes or more since 2016. However this is open to interpretation as a single “port” could, for example, feature a number of separately-run terminals.

There have been occasions where smaller terminals, despite handling less than 1m tonnes, have been taken together and other occasions where this hasn’t occurred, said Mr Simmonds.

This article is taken from a feature on air quality which will appear in the April 2019 issue of PS. Register here to receive your exclusive advance copy.