Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to mitigate the effects of (a) noise pollution, (b) light pollution and (c) air pollution from motorways adjacent to residential areas.

National Highways is implementing a programme of measures around the country to mitigate air pollution at locations identified by Defra’s national Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) model on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) as above the annual mean nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) limit value. These measures include: local traffic management, 60mph speed limits to reduce emissions compared to vehicles travelling at the national speed limit on motorways and dual carriageways, working with local authorities (investing £12.5m with authorities in Leeds, Coventry, Kent, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bristol) to accelerate the uptake of zero tailpipe emission vans.

National Highways has also undertaken an extensive programme of air quality research and continues to assess new and initiative technologies and measures that will support their work to reduce NO₂ levels on the SRN.

National Highways has an obligation to minimise the environmental impact of the SRN. Consequently, it has had a long-standing programme of work to review the cost effectiveness of its lighting stock, removing cost-ineffective lights and to minimise the obtrusive light emitted by new or replacement road lighting schemes. National Highways requires its designers to use national and international standards, supported by industry best practice guidance.

To address noise pollution on the SRN and affected residential areas, National Highways builds measures into the newer parts of its network to control noise and install noise mitigation measures as standard on its road schemes. National Highways implements a variety of measures to reduce noise in its new schemes or existing roads, including changing to low-noise road surfaces, implementing noise barriers and insulating houses to reduce the noise that people are exposed to. Noise mitigation is provided during routine maintenance, as part of major schemes, and through standalone noise mitigation projects funded from National Highways Designated Funds Programme.