Air quality assessment - Planning validation requirements

Back to validation homepage

Description 

An air quality assessment provides details of the emissions your proposed development will produce and any exposure to poor air quality. 

Guidance 

The statement you submit should include an executive summary and be clear, easy to read and jargon free. 

You need to submit an air quality assessment if your proposed development is located near to existing sources of pollution such as: 

• employment areas 
• roads and railway lines 
• town centres 

You need to submit an air quality assessment if your proposed development result in emissions which reduce air quality. 

You can get full detail of what you need to cover in your air quality assessment from our Environmental health team. 

You can get help and advice from our Duty Planner on air quality assessments and other types of planning applications. 

You can get detailed feedback on your proposal by using our pre-application advice service. 

Personal and confidential statement 

We may publish any information you submit as part of your application. You must tell us if there is any information you do not want us to publish when you submit your application.  

If however, we believe that this information is in the public interest, we reserve the right to publish it.  

We may also decide parts of your submission are not in the public interest and may redact this information. This information may include telephone numbers, email addresses and signatures. 

Depending on the details of your application, you may have to submit an air quality assessment when you are making an application for: 

• Advertising consent 
• Agricultural development 
• Certificate of lawful use for a proposed development
• Certificate of lawful use for an existing development
• Change of use 
• Commercial, industrial and non-residential
• Demolition of an unlisted building 
• Discharge of conditions 
• Householder planning consent 
• Listed building consent 
• Non-material amendment 
• Outline permission with all reserved matters 
• Outline permission with some reserved matters 
• Permission in principle
• Prior approval
• Prior notification 
• Removal or variation of conditions 
• Reserved matters
• Residential new build
• Technical details consent
• Telecommunications 

If your application is for one of these types of planning permission, you need to submit an air quality assessment if your proposed development may: 

• be exposed to poor air quality 
• result in emissions which reduce air quality 

Required by 

• National requirement. You can find details of this requirement in section 124 of the National Planning Policy Framework 
• Local plan policy - LPP70
• Local plan policy - LPP63
• Local plan policy - SP7
• Local plan policy - LPP52

These policies can be found in the Local Plan 2013 - 2033 document