DORSET Council is being called upon to repair a faulty air pollution monitoring device on one of Weymouth's most congested roads - as reports indicate the level of harmful traffic emissions exceeds new recommended air quality guidelines.

An automatic monitoring device designed to capture levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide on Boot Hill has been out of action since 2019. At a meeting tonight Weymouth councillor Graham Lambert is to urge the town council to call on Dorset Council to reinstate it.

Ahead of the meeting, Dorset Council has indicated there are no plans for it to be repaired and said the council does not have a statutory obligation to monitor particulate matter PM 2.5 - only nitrogen dioxide.

Nitrogen dioxide is measured via eight diffusion tube monitoring devices in the Rodwell area, which are working. Readings indicate that levels are significantly higher than new recommended Global Air Quality Guidelines published last month by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in light of 'clear evidence of the damage air pollution inflicts on human health'.

Health risks include acute and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and stroke.

At tonight's Full Council meeting cllr Lambert will call on the town council to put pressure on Dorset Council to change its policy in line with the new WHO air quality recommendation.

Cllr Graham Lambert added that he wants questions to be raised over Dorset Council's strategy for improving the air quality for Rodwell residents 'who are currently exposed to air pollution at levels which are more than twice the latest guidelines issued by the WHO'.

A Dorset Council spokesman said: "The World Health Organisation’s Global Air Quality Guidelines are a tool for policy-makers to guide legislation and policies – they are not targets for local authorities to demonstrate compliance with.

"Dorset Council has legal Air Quality Objectives to adhere to, but it should be noted that at this time there is no such objective in place for PM2.5. The Rodwell Road area therefore complies with the current statutory Air Quality Objectives.

"While we monitor for nitrogen dioxide in six places at this location, the real-time analyser located in the Boot Hill area of Rodwell Road is faulty.

"It is over a decade old, and advances in monitoring equipment mean that there may be smarter ways to achieve monitoring on a wider scale, which we are currently looking into. Public Health Dorset has been monitoring and modelling particulate matter throughout the Dorset Council area and within part of the BCP Council area too, with data suggesting that particulate levels throughout the region are good."

As reported, residents called for compensation after a traffic light system was installed in 2011 after roundabouts were removed. 

The former Dorset County Council refused, however, as the changes ‘did not alter the road’.