With partners, the Council has prepared a Draft Air Quality Action Plan that aims to reduce Particulate Matter (PM10) pollution in the Salamander Street Air Quality Management Area (AQMA), Leith.
The plan outlines how air quality issues will be tackled, to meet and sustain statutory air quality objectives, under four themes:
- Industrial
- Roads and Transport
- Development Management
- Information to the Public
Emissions from industry, transport and fugitive sources, including port activities and construction sites, will be addressed.
The Council’s priorities and drivers for pursuing actions to improve air quality are based on public health principles. Air pollution is associated with many adverse health impacts. It is recognised as a contributing factor in the onset of lung and heart disease, as well as cancer, and evidence is growing in respect to links between air pollution and a decline in mental ability and dementia.
Additionally, air pollution particularly affects the most vulnerable in society: children and older people, and those with pre-existing health conditions. The annual health cost to society of the impacts of particulate matter alone in the UK is estimated to be around £16 billion.
City Plan 2030 highlights Edinburgh Waterfront area as an opportunity for large scale mixed-use regeneration to help meet the city’s growth needs, particularly for new housing. The City Plan identifies areas for housing-led mixed-use development sites in various ownerships in the Salamander Street AQMA. Some of this land was previously allocated for industry. Other parts of the Port of Leith will continue as industry and the future focus is on the development of Low Carbon / Renewables Enterprise Areas and industry as part of the Green Freeport.
Introducing sensitive uses such as residential properties into an area of poor air quality requires to be undertaken carefully with the appropriate consideration of pollution exposure, potential mitigation and programming of development.
Dust and PM10 emissions from demolition and construction can also be a source of pollution especially for existing residential properties. Such emissions occur during the preparation of the land e.g. demolition, land clearing, and earth moving, and during construction, with a proportion from site plant and road vehicles moving over temporary roads and open ground. If mud is allowed to get onto local roads, dust emissions can occur at some distance from the originating site.
Using the Scottish Government’s R-OpenAir analysis tool, with locally collected pollution data and meteorological data we have been able to show (in the Polar Plots below) that high concentrations of PM10 were associated with known demolition and construction works in 2024.
Developers and landowners need to work together, with the local community and the Council to help reduce this local impact. Control measures such as reducing deliveries by road, vehicle wheel washing, road sweeping/washing, and the use of dust suppressants would all be relevant in addition to general on-site management, mitigation and good practice.
The Council wants to engage with businesses operating in the area or those with interests in the land. One of the actions of the Draft Action Plan is to set up a forum with the Council, housing developers, landowners, businesses and community groups to address the cumulative impact of development on environmental protection matters.
In the meantime, however, we want to hear your views about all the actions in the Plan.
Get in touch by email spatial.policy@edinburgh.gov.uk or via post to the City of Edinburgh Council, Level G.4, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG.
If you require a different format or translation, please also get in touch.
The consultation is seeking views on the Draft Action Plan by 7th September 2025. Thereafter your participation in the local forum would also be welcome.
Planning Edinburgh 
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