A review of the Air Quality Assessment modelling put forward for Padnall Lake Marks Gate proposed development of 300 homes along the A12 has been described as NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE by Professor Stephen Peckham and Dr Ashley Mills, The Centre for Health Services at the University of Kent.
LBBD planning committee meet on 30 Nov 2020 to decide on this application.
Professor Peckham and Dr Mills say that baseline data is not representative and the model verification is inadequate, stating that
The developer has produced a minimal-effort model derived from two baseline data points which are not representative of the development area, taken from between 2 and 4km away, from sites with atypical characteristics and in discord with those of the development area. As the baseline data is not representative, this is not consistent with the requirements of the LBBD EHO.
The developer’s model is “verified” using only these two data points, producing a meaningless RMSE that provides no understanding of the real-world performance of the model across a variety of conditions and in the environment of the development itself.
They conclude that:
the development should not be considered until a model is presented that:
● uses representative baseline data, which is likely to require additional local diffusion tube modeling for a period of one year in the area of the actual development
● Is verified using multiple locations in the area of the actual development
Lets see if the Planning Committee accept this or choose to ignore the report for being critical of them.
Given the effects of pollution on our health we can only hope that they act properly, with a duty of care to their residents.