Sectors
Property
Air quality is one of the fastest and most rapidly expanding areas of environmental concern for any property planning applications as an understanding of the wider issues and dangers becomes the focus of the general public and government policy makers.
New residential sites are of the most concern as consideration must be given not only to the potential impact of increased traffic flows as a result of new units, but on the potential for new properties to be introduced into areas of existing poor air quality. However any Development with the potential to generate traffic must consider the potential impacts of these new vehicle movements and the impacts they may be having in terms of air pollution.
Vale Consulting have considerable experience in addressing these concerns for residential, commercial and light industrial developments having been responsible for the air quality assessment of a diverse range of projects from single stores and dwellings up to large scale 3000 unit new build sites and complex multi-phase mixed use Developments. We have a long track record of working with transport consultants across the sector to diagnose and resolve potential air quality issues in the planning process in a satisfactory and timely manner.
Infrastructure
New road and transport connections often have a dramatic impact upon traffic movements and congestion hot spots which are key factors in creating and resolving air quality issues. As such any major new road or junction improvement requires an assessment of the potential air quality issues, both positive and negative and including a financial case, as part of the planning application.
Vale have worked on new link roads, motorway junction improvements and town centre roundabout schemes. On top of this we have extensive experience in new rail stations including assessing emissions from both the road and rail side of these complex Developments.
Energy
The installation of any combustion based energy source such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, large scale boilers or grid supporting peaking plants requires detailed consideration of the potential environmental impacts arising as a result of pollution caused by the combustion process.
These impacts can be assessed in a variety of ways from the use of simple screening tools such as the Simple Calculation of Atmospheric Impact Limits (SCAIL) to detailed dispersion modelling and often require careful consideration of a range of factors including the proposed plant and the physical parameters of the emissions stack.
Vale Consulting has extensive experience in assisting in the planning and permitting of applications ranging in size from 700 kW to 50 mW under both Environment Agency (EA) and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) jurisdiction and specializes in complex assessments that take into account local terrain, building and stack height and the in combination effects of both point and road sources.