Welcome to Epping Forest!

Epping Forest District is an attractive, predominantly commuter area in the south west of Essex on the northeastern edge of London. The district has a population of around 121,000, of which nearly three quarters live in the suburban towns of Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Epping and Waltham Abbey. The remaining quarter live in the surrounding rural areas including large villages such as Roydon, Nazeing, North Weald and Theydon Bois.

The main source of air pollution in the borough is road traffic. There are two large motorways in the district; the M25 and the M11 however the air quality issues are located in the urban areas, principally caused by stop-start traffic congestion.

We monitor nitrogen dioxide using 52 passive diffusion tubes at 22 monitoring locations around the district, and a continuous analyser site in the grounds of the civic offices to provide real-time nitrogen dioxide and dust monitoring information.

Our reviews and assessments of air quality have kept us busy over the years, and the full list of reports can be found and downloaded below using the `reports` tab on this page. In summary, we have declared a couple of AQMA`s for Nitrogen Dioxide in Epping and revoked one that was no longer required. We are likely to declare a few more AQMA`s in Epping and Loughton for Nitrogen Dioxide from stop-start traffic. Results will be out soon.

Unfortunately our analysers have been rather poorly of late, and were taken off-line late last year. We are pleased to advise however that our replacement BAM seems to be working well (thank you very much Graham from Basildon Council for the BAM from his mothballed AQMS). All we need now is a new NOx box! Anyone got an API NOx analyser they no longer require?.......

And finally.......

The first ever Essex Air Geocache is up and running (have you found it yet?) and Travel Bug is released into the wild. No idea what we mean? Take a look in `Air Zone` to find out more. Have fun!