Chamber and committees

Is that an approach that you have chosen to take at the City of Edinburgh Council? Is there a quicker way of doing it?

Yes, or maybe you could just say how you would approach it. The point that Gary Fuller was making is that what councils can do is map out what the pathways might look like. What is your response to that?

Thanks.

I am also asking about the wider issue of air quality management area reform.

The system that we have in Scotland is one of local air quality management in local authorities. We have had quite a lot of written evidence on that. The ESS report talks about the timescales for how plans are developed, reviewed and published. Gary Fuller made comments about monitoring vulnerable people, particularly outside schools, and we have had comments from Professor Campbell Gemmell about who provides the independent oversight of air quality management areas and the plans that come from them. How can the system be improved overall? I ask Gavin Thomson to answer that first, and then anybody else who wants to comment.

You made a specific point about monitoring vulnerable populations and monitoring outside schools. Should that be part of all plans, or should a place-based approach be taken?

Is it adequate?

I have one final question. Jackie Dunbar raised the issue earlier of the WHO limits, and we had some discussion on that with the first panel. To paraphrase, Gary Fuller was saying that strict compliance may be very challenging, but there is still work that councils can do to look at pathways towards potentially meeting those WHO limits on an area-wide basis. What is your response to that? Can councils look at what it would take and what the various pathways might be? I suppose that it might be possible to pick particular pathways that match the wider investment that you are planning in active travel or neighbourhood regeneration. I do not know, but it is interesting to know how you might approach that—or is it in the “too difficult to do” box?

Okay. That is useful. Do others want to come in specifically on how the targets could be delivered and what those pathways might look like? Gavin Thomson is nodding.

With existing resources?