inel

by Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

An environment department spokesman confirmed that the government was expected to apply for a five-year exemption for NO2 emissions and a year for particulates of less than 10 microns in size.

Ministers are planning to ask the European commission for a special deal to exempt the capital from official limits on exposure to air pollutants.

The government has decided to sacrifice air quality standards across London in order to allow an extra 60,000 flights per year into Heathrow.

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The European Union air quality directive, which comes into force next month, would require the UK to meet limits on NO2 by 2010, in line with World Health Organisation standards.

The government’s plans to secure a waiver from the rules was disclosed in a presentation given to a conference on air quality earlier this month by an official at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The civil servant from the department’s air quality unit disclosed that the government is drawing up plans to ask Brussels for formal permission to delay compliance with Europe-wide air quality rules.