Gatwick Airport Limited has been monitoring air quality at the airport since 1992. Following the designation of the Horley Gardens Estate, Horley as an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in 2002, Gatwick Airport Limited has been working with Reigate and Banstead Borough Council to monitor and manage air quality, particularly in relation to nitrogen dioxide emissions, to ensure that air quality limits are not breached.
GATCOM considers on an annual basis the results of air quality monitoring from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council – here are the reports for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 , 2019 2020 , 2021, 2022 , 2023 , 2024
Click here for the background report (issued in 2007) which gives details of the air quality standards in the UK and the main factors that need to be borne in mind with air quality compliance monitoring.
Ultrafine Particles (UFPs)
There are currently no ambient air quality standards for UFP in the UK . Emissions inventories show that combustion sources, and especially those related to residential wood burning and transport (road traffic, aircraft, shipping) are the main sources of ultrafine particle emissions in the UK and Europe.
GATCOM has been supportive of the work of Reigate & Banstead Borough Council in seeking to gain a better understanding of UFP concentrations around Gatwick. Following a successful research bid by King’s College and Imperial College in 2017 measurements of UFP concentrations in the vicinity of Gatwick begun in June 2018, initially at the RG1 monitoring site for three months and then at the RG3 monitoring site to the south west of the airport for three months. Following discussions with the research groups Reigate & Banstead Borough Council along with Leicester University agreed to joint fund work for a further six months until early July 2019. Some of the initial findings from the data sets have been reported to GATCOM – Click here to see initial results given in July 2019 and click here for the updated initial results.
Following this work, the Council then reapproached DEFRA for further funding for long term community monitoring of ultrafines in the vicinity of Gatwick, citing the need for the UK national network to have at least one community monitoring site near a major UK airport. DEFRA have now expanded the UKs national ultrafine particles network from three to six sites and in 2024 as part of this expansion it agreed to fund in full a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) which looks at both particle number and the size of the particles at the RG1 site in Horley.
Ultrafines monitoring began on the Horley Gardens Estate in late 2024 and Reigate and Banstead Council have undertaken to report the initial findings for 2025 to GATCOM in mid-2026.