What You Thought of Air Quality

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Awareness Survey

A questionnaire was prepared with a set of 8 questions designed to gauge local people's level of awareness of air quality and its surrounding issues. 92 people were surveyed in total via a clipboard direct survey approach carried out in St Peters Avenue, Cleethorpes; near Freshney Place, Grimsby and the Kennedy Way Shopping Centre, Immingham. The information from the survey will be used as an indication of people's awareness now thus enabling the effectiveness of the awareness raising aspects of the Council's local air quality strategy to be gauged over subsequent years.

Being such a small sample of people the results are only of limited value but still provide some useful findings. In subsequent years as additional funding is made available it may be possible to carry out such survey work on a much larger scale possibly by mail shot.

Results

Question 1:

What does air quality mean to you?

Of the 92 people surveyed, 36% thought air quality was about "how clean the air is", 21% thought it was "to do with pollution", 7% thought it was about odour, 7% thought it was about dust / appearance and a total of 31% either didn't know or thought it meant something else. This would suggest that there is already a fair level of awareness with which to build on.

Question 2:

How do you perceive the air quality in the area (local)?

Of the 92 people surveyed, a third thought that the air quality in their local areas within NEL was good. A total of 67 people, over two thirds, thought that the air quality in their local areas was fair to very good.  It is interesting to note the difference in the trend of opinion in relation to residents within Immingham compared to residents in other parts of NEL, mainly Cleethorpes and Grimsby.

There is a clear distinction between people's perception of the state of air quality in Immingham compared to the other areas in NEL. The majority of people believe that the air quality in Immingham is between fair and very poor compared to the other people in mainly Cleethorpes and Grimsby who felt that the air quality where they live was between very good and fair. Whilst this does not prove that there is more of an air quality problem in Immingham compared to other areas in NEL is does however indicate that the public in Immingham believe this to be the case.

Question 3:

Do you have any personal concerns regarding air quality?

53% of the people surveyed answered yes but again there is a clear distinction between people's perception of the air quality problems in Immingham compared to the other areas in North East Lincolnshire. The majority of people believe that the air quality in Immingham is effected by coal dust, emissions from the refineries and odour compared to residents in Cleethorpes and Grimsby who felt that the main air quality problems are as a result of emissions from vehicles.

Question 4:

Do you know what factors effect air quality?

Of the 92 people asked 55% knew that Air Quality is effected by exhaust fumes, 55% also knew that it is effected by industrial emissions. 15% of the people asked knew that Air Quality is effected by coal dust and all these people were Immingham residents. Only 11% of the people asked knew that Air Quality is effected by all of the mentioned factors.

Question 5:

Do you know the health problems which poor air quality can cause/ aggravate?

Of the 92 people asked 52% knew that Air Quality effected people suffering from Asthma and 43% knew that it effected people with other respiratory conditions. 8% of people asked knew that Air Quality effects those suffering from heart conditions and 17% knew of all the mentioned conditions that can be effected by Air Quality. 13% did not know of any of the conditions. In general this would also indicate a reasonably good level of awareness with which to build on.

Question 6:

Are you aware that North East Lincolnshire Council is taking measures to monitor local air quality?

Of the 92 people asked 41% knew that the Council is monitoring Air Quality compared to 59% who didn't know.

Question 7:

Are you aware that North East Lincolnshire Council is taking measures to improve local air quality through its strategy?

Of the 92 people asked 18% knew that the Council is trying to improve Air Quality through its strategy compared to 82% who didn't know anything about it or that the Council was doing anything to improve Air Quality. This would suggest that the recent consultation work and press releases have had some impact in raising awareness but much further work is needed as will be carried out on implementing the strategy.

Question 8:

Are you aware of measures that you can make towards improving the air quality of your local environment?

Of the 92 people asked 45% knew that they could contribute to improving Air Quality by using alternative forms of transport. Whilst this is encouraging only 12% and 8% respectively knew that regular car and boiler maintenance could improve Air Quality and 36% of the people asked had no idea of what they could do at all.

Conclusion

As explained earlier, due to time and financial constraints only a small number of people could be surveyed at this stage. This means that the results can only be used as an indication of the level of awareness in relation to Air Quality and its surrounding issues. It is likely that a more in depth baseline investigation will need to be carried out in the near future as an when funding is made available. However the result obtained from this study have identified a number of key issues: