We are seeking evidence on options to support individuals and businesses affected by local air quality plans for NO2.

Our proposals include measures that could be supported through the Clean Air Fund. The Clean Air Fund will provide an opportunity for local authorities to implement additional measures tailored to their area which minimise the adverse effects of local air quality plans.

It was a busy day for the team who stopped a number of waste carriers to see if they had a permit to carry waste, had the correct duty of care paperwork and were describing the waste they were carrying correctly. Officers also checked whether waste was being transported to authorised and legitimate sites where it would be handled correctly.

Senior Environmental Crime Officer Julia Leigh said:

We had a great response from various waste carriers that were stopped, thanking us for carrying out these road stops as they are frustrated with illegal operators undermining their legitimate businesses. It also gave us an opportunity to remind people of the need to use registered waste carriers and comply with their duty of care.

Multi-agency days of action are a valuable tool in preventing and disrupting waste crime. The Environment Agency want to make it very clear to people that everyone has a duty of care to ensure their waste is managed and disposed of correctly by the people they give it to.

Waste being transported with no authorisations is likely to end up at illegal waste sites. Such sites store waste in vast quantities and for long periods of time posing significant risks to health and the environment, like pest infestations and fires, which could lead to water and land contamination plus air pollution from smoke. Illegal waste sites are often the cause of odour complaints too.

Julia Leigh added:

Everyone, including householders, need to make sure that when they have waste removed that they use a registered waste carrier and ensure there is a waste transfer note for the waste taken. If they don’t they risk being fined £5,000. Illegal operators have been filling up sites and leaving the landowner to pay for the clear-up costs. Depending on what waste has been left the cost of this can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not more.

Our enforcement days make sure that the right waste goes to the right place. People who manage waste illegally cost the taxpayer millions every year in clean-up costs. They undercut legitimate business, pose a direct threat to sustainable growth in the waste management sector and take valuable resource from the public sector.

Contact

• For all media enquiries call: 0800 141 2743.
• Email: southeastpressoffice1@environment-agency.gov.uk.
• Follow us on Twitter: @EnvAgencySE

It was a busy day for the team who stopped a number of waste carriers to see if they had a permit to carry waste, had the correct duty of care paperwork and were describing the waste they were carrying correctly. Officers also checked whether waste was being transported to authorised and legitimate sites where it would be handled correctly.

Senior Environmental Crime Officer Julia Leigh said:

We had a great response from various waste carriers that were stopped, thanking us for carrying out these road stops as they are frustrated with illegal operators undermining their legitimate businesses. It also gave us an opportunity to remind people of the need to use registered waste carriers and comply with their duty of care.

Multi-agency days of action are a valuable tool in preventing and disrupting waste crime. The Environment Agency want to make it very clear to people that everyone has a duty of care to ensure their waste is managed and disposed of correctly by the people they give it to.

Waste being transported with no authorisations is likely to end up at illegal waste sites. Such sites store waste in vast quantities and for long periods of time posing significant risks to health and the environment, like pest infestations and fires, which could lead to water and land contamination plus air pollution from smoke. Illegal waste sites are often the cause of odour complaints too.

Julia Leigh added:

Everyone, including householders, need to make sure that when they have waste removed that they use a registered waste carrier and ensure there is a waste transfer note for the waste taken. If they don’t they risk being fined £5,000. Illegal operators have been filling up sites and leaving the landowner to pay for the clear-up costs. Depending on what waste has been left the cost of this can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not more.

Our enforcement days make sure that the right waste goes to the right place. People who manage waste illegally cost the taxpayer millions every year in clean-up costs. They undercut legitimate business, pose a direct threat to sustainable growth in the waste management sector and take valuable resource from the public sector.

Contact

• For all media enquiries call: 0800 141 2743.
• Email: southeastpressoffice1@environment-agency.gov.uk.
• Follow us on Twitter: @EnvAgencySE

Autumn Budget 2017 announced reforms to improve air quality in the UK.

A £220 million New Clean Air Fund, funded by targeted changes to company car tax and vehicle excise duty for those buying new diesel cars, will support English local authorities to support people and businesses to adapt as measures to improve air quality are implemented.

This document sets out the background of on the government’s policy to improve air quality and details of its plan going forward.

Marcus Fry and Rob Nichols travelled to London at the weekend to collect their award from SADS UK, a national charity that campaigns to prevent loss of life from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.

The pair swung into action after a colleague collapsed at the Environment Agency’s head office in Horizon House, Bristol. The victim, a woman, was unresponsive and struggling to breathe.

First-aider Marcus started administering cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), then realised he could also deploy an automatic external defibrillator to prevent the risk of brain damage until an ambulance arrived. Software contractor Rob Nichols took over CPR while Marcus powered up the defibrillator.

Project manager Marcus, 55, of Thornbury, said:

These things work on a fluttering heart, so while Rob, a volunteer with West Midlands Ambulance Service, continued the CPR, I put the pads on the patient. The machine did an analysis and instructed us to continue mouth-to-mouth and CPR. After 2 to 3 minutes the paramedics arrived, followed by an ambulance carrying larger equipment, and then a doctor by helicopter.

After 20 minutes the medics stabilised the patient before taking her to hospital, where she was slowly awakened and treated for her heart condition.

Richard Houghton, Deputy Director, Health, Safety and Wellbeing at the Environment Agency said:

We are very proud and grateful of our quick-thinking colleagues whose calmness and first aid knowledge saved their workmate’s life. The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce is paramount for the Environment Agency, and I congratulate Marcus and Rob on their nomination for this award.

Rapid treatment is essential when someone suffers Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. If this happens, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs.

A defibrillator sends an electric shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm. Prompt treatment increases a victim’s chances of survival and reduces the risk of brain damage. Without rapid treatment only around 8% of people survive without neurological damage so every minute counts.

The Environment Agency colleague, after her recovery, said:

I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Marcus and Rob provided the assistance I needed with minimum delay. Their actions were impeccable. I was in hospital for 2 days in an induced coma and thankfully hadn’t suffered any neurological damage when I came around.

In a statement read out at Saturday’s awards ceremony the colleague said, “There are no words in any language that can express the feeling of being resuscitated. They just didn’t give up on me. Gratitude is massive. But yet ‘gratitude’ feels like such a small word.”

Anne Jolly MBE, founder of SADS UK, said:

SADS UK commend the lifesaving action taken by Rob and Marcus. It is good to know there was a defibrillator on the premises and that the Environment Agency has installed more at other offices since this incident.

The introduction of the automatic external defibrillator to the Environment Agency’s Bristol office can be credited to the experience of former Bolton Wanderers’ Fabrice Muamba. When he was aged 23, Fabrice suffered cardiac arrest during a match against Tottenham Hotspurs and was resuscitated after his heart stopped beating for 7 minutes.

Marcus was presented with a Lifepak defibrillator that he is donating to Yatton Keynell Village Hall, Wiltshire.