North West Leicestershire District Council has set out plans to vastly improve its air quality monitoring in Coalville and the surrounding area so it can gather improved data that can help inform future decisions.

Along with Leicestershire County Council and other local authorities in the county, the district council has recently signed up to a collaborative health action plan of which a long-term aim is improving air quality.

New equipment will provide additional information to the council which will help to inform several aspects of the council's work including its long-term health and wellbeing policies, Zero Carbon agenda and planning guidelines.

The equipment costs £31,000 and will be installed in key locations within the district that will be determined by expert air quality consultants.

The investment means the council will be going above and beyond its statutory air quality monitoring requirements.

After reviewing progress on the monitoring plan at the council's Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, December 8, Councillor Andrew Woodman, Portfolio Holder for Community Services at NWLDC, said: "We want to ensure North West Leicestershire and the National Forest remain a happy and healthy place to live, work and relax for generations to come.

"To achieve this, we need to have a better understanding of local air quality which will give us the data we need to inform our future plans and ambitions.

"It would be easy for us to settle for meeting only our statutory requirements for air quality monitoring, but we feel this area of work demands more investment which will bring a host of long-term benefits to North West Leicestershire."