East Cambridgeshire District Council

Road traffic is a common source of pollution and its detrimental impact on local air quality needs to be managed. To understand what the situation is currently, monitoring is needed to assess whether the air quality in any part of East Cambridgeshire is problematic.  With the assistance of Leicester City Council, we have recently installed an air quality monitor in the south of Ely to help investigate the impact of recent changes within the city.

East Cambridgeshire District Councils Private Water Supply Charging Scheme

The charging scheme adopted by ECDC, in accordance with Regulation 21 of the Private Water Supplies Regulations 2009, is one which covers Officers time in undertaking investigations and assessments, and which covers the costs of water quality analysis. If enforcement action is required costs can only be claimed for such activity if a statutory notice is not complied with and an individual becomes liable to a fine on summary conviction.

What to do if your water supply fails a bacteriological test?

If your water fails due to E Coli or Coliforms the Local Authority will provide you with the necessary advice but in summary they will advise you to BOIL YOUR WATER or ONLY USE BOTTLED WATER.

Until further tests, water at your tap is not wholesome and could cause illness such as diarrhoea or virus infections

All water used for drinking and food preparation should be boiled briskly for at least one minute.

This includes:

ECDC has a legal duty under the Private Water Supply Regulations 2009 to keep itself informed about the safety of large, commercial and small private water supplies in its area.

The way ECDC carries out its duties relating to private water supplies are controlled. These include:

Pollution

• Air Quality
  
• Asbestos
  
• Contaminated Land
  
• Private Water Supply
  
• Radon Gas
  

What is Light Pollution?

Artificial light has many uses such as the illumination of streets and hazardous areas, security lighting and increasing the hours of usage for outdoor recreation facilities but it can cause problems; light in the wrong place can be intrusive.

The home security lighting found in many domestic locations uses floodlighting controlled by a movement sensor using passive infra-red (PIR).

I live in a flat, can I install a laminate or hardwood floor?

The laying of a laminate or hardwood floor in place of carpet results in more impact noise (footsteps, chair scrapes, dropped items, etc.) travelling into the floor. These noises can quickly become an annoyance for downstairs neighbours, often without the upper property being aware of it.

Latest Information on Air Quality in the District

The recent data indicates that the air quality in East Cambridgeshire is within the objectives set by the government. The information is obtained from a number of sources. Firstly, a number of small Nitrogen Dioxide diffusion tubes are positioned in various locations around the district. The information provided by these diffusion tubes gives us an indication of the impact on air quality from road traffic. The Council also has a permanent station for monitoring levels of PM10, which are very fine particles in the air.

A private water supply is one which is not from a  “mains” source, such as a:

• well
• borehole
• spring
• stream
• river
• lake or pond

As East Cambridgeshire is a relatively rural district we do have a number of properties that are not supplied by mains water from the water companies. There are presently about 50 such private water supplies in the District.