The national government
recognised the PM problem cannot be solved by cities, because in the Netherlands it is a
large scale problem with high background concentrations. Therefore the national
government will formulate an action plan for PM10. However, because neither the
responsibility for PM10 nor the priority related to exposure are mentioned in
the relevant Dutch law articles and are not clearly explained in the explanatory
memorandum, some juridical procedures ended up blocking plans. The national
government is working on a solution to this problem.
Every year the national
government provides cities with an updated calculation model (CAR) with
emissions, meteorological conditions and background concentrations for the
previous year and 2010. That seems quite comfortable, but in practice the room
for local traffic within these limits is getting tighter with ever-pessimistic
national scenarios.
The cities can get financial
support to formulate an action plan and to take measures. Money for taking
measures is added to an integral budget for urban renewal. But there was also a
reduction on that budget.
Cities and citizens can get
information on air quality from a national helpdesk (Infomil), a website with
measurements (RIVM) and television (teletext). The helpdesk also provides
cities and provinces with stencils for reporting and it supports a discussion
website for cities and provinces.
There is a national platform for
implementation of the air quality legislation. In this platform cities can
exchange experiences and can put in requests.
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