A UKP400,000 monitoring programme is to keep track of air pollution, possibly produced by burning tyres at the Rugby cement plant near the town’s centre. The programme includes the location of 23 monitors, which measure particulates, around the borough.
The programme, funded by the local borough council and with a UKP75,000 Rugby Cement grant, will measure pollution levels before Rugby Cement begins its tyre-burning trials at the Lawford Road site next year. Comparison between pre-trial and trial pollution levels should help to assess the environmental impact of the trials. Environment portfolio holder Cllr Ish Mistry commented: “If the pollution levels change dramatically after trials start, we can go back to the Environment Agency and Defra and demand something is done”.