More than 40 of Cheshire East Council’s 119 testing sites have been implicated in the air quality data scandal rocking the authority.
A damning report last week revealed how air quality data had been “deliberately manipulated” for three years.
Now it has emerged that data from 42 of the 119 sites regular testing sites was involved.
One site in Nantwich which is regularly tested is Hospital Street, but it’s not clear if this is among the 42 affected.
Cheshire East has today vowed to unveil the full list of sites affected later this week.
And it also said a list of planning decisions which were made in those years and possibly based on inaccurate air quality readings, will also be made public.
Oliver Hayes, Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner, has heavily criticised the authority.
He told Nantwichnews: “It is outrageous that there has been a ‘deliberate and systematic manipulation’ of air pollution data in Cheshire East.
“Residents will rightly be wondering what this means for their and their families health.
“The council needs to be fully transparent about how far the numbers were manipulated and what impact this has had on the local area.
“If this is happening in Cheshire East, where else across the country are pollution figures being lied about?
“Why didn’t national government pick this up?
“National and local government need to get serious about dealing with this invisible killer, not just cooking the books and hoping the issue will go away.”
The year-long external investigation into Cheshire East’s air quality monitoring, was carried out by Bureau Veritas who reported its conclusions last week.
It also states Cheshire East Council is guilty of “failings within the service to ensure adequate processes, procedures and systems were in place to manage this data effectively”.
As a result, wrong data was submitted to Defra in an annual statutory return, which will need to be corrected and published in the public domain.
Errors may have impacted on Air Quality Assessments undertaken as part of planning applications for sites such as new housing developments.
Sean Hannaby, Cheshire East Council Director of Planning and Sustainable Development, said last week: “On behalf of the council, I would like to sincerely apologise in respect of these findings, we would like to assure everyone we have done everything we can to rectify these failings.”
The authority said all HR matters as a result of the investigation were ongoing.
I think the figures will have been manipulated down and the reason for this is to allow for more housing development
What the article doesn’t tell us is whether the figures were manipulated up or down. Neither is there any indication as to why this might have been done.