Devon County Council (Environment Profiles 2011)

• There are 10 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) in Devon (not inc Plymouth and Torbay). This was the highest reported for a unitary/county authority in the South West. The highest number was in Teignbridge District Council with 4 areas.
• For more information please click here.

Source: DEFRA

• There are 373 river water bodies within Devon. Our latest assessment of these classified 1% as bad, 9.3% as poor, 57.4% as moderate and 32.2% as good.

• The main reasons for less than good status include : impacted fish and diatom communities; physical modification; high levels of copper, zinc and phosphate and low pH.

• For information on the activities taking place to help your local river improve, please see the Earth Chattering pages for an interactive map and much more information.

Please note - Water bodies do not fit exactly within local authority boundaries. The figures have been derived from those water bodies whose centres are within the district in question. If all water bodies within a district had been included, double accounting would have taken place. Some water bodies have yet to be classified. For the purpose of this exercise, these have been removed from the figures published.

Source: Environment Agency  

• Land use within Devon County area, is predominantly green space. However, three councils within the county of Devon are different. These are Exeter, Torbay and Plymouth City which are much more urban in nature, and green space is nearer 50%, and gardens are increased up to around 20% of the land use. Please note, only Exeter district is included in the facts about Devon, as there are separate pages for Torbay and Plymouth here.

• The South West average for green space is 90%, and the average in England is 87%.

• For detailed information to the former district level, please see their individual pages.

• Devon County is the largest area in the South West. The smallest in the South West is Bournemouth.

• The ninth Local Environmental Quality Survey conducted by Keep Britain Tidy, was carried out between April 2009 and March 2010. The Summary Report key messages included :

~ Overall Standards within England remain the same as last year, with no change in the Cleansing Index score, which is 76, out of a possible 100.

~ 63% of standards for all LEQ indicators were either Good or Satisfactory.

~ The South East joins the South West as top performing region overall, for the first time this year.

~ The South West has been either the top performing region or joint top performing region since the 2007/08 Survey.   

• The survey carried out between April 2006 -March 2007, is available down to Local Authority Level, please click here for the details. 

• There are no County Summaries. Please see district pages for their reports.   

 Source: Keep Britain Tidy

• Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) are areas of land that drain into waters polluted by nitrates, such that the ecosystem is at risk of being disturbed, or the water is likely to exceed 50 milligrams of nitrate in each litre.

• Within Devon County, there is one significant area designated NVZ with no areas of deferred slurry storage.
• NVZ regulations come fully into force on 1 Jan 2012, except in deferred Slurry storage areas which have until 1 Jan 2013.
• For more information on NVZ, please see Environment Agency pages.
• For detailed maps relating to NVZ areas, please see source pages.

Source: Environment Agency

• Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) gives advice on dealing with diffuse pollution from agriculture and the impact on water courses.  

• CSF is a voluntary initiative, where as NVZs is a statutory obligation. CSF looks at : best practice on manure and pesticide usage; Promoting good soil structure; protecting watercourses from run-off and best practice on stock management.

• There are a number of areas within Devon which are subject to CSF regulations.

Source: Environment Agency

• The map below shows the soils present within Devon County Council. Soils within Plymouth & Torbay & Devon County Council are dominated by medium textured soils with light textured and peaty soils in the upland high rainfall areas of Dartmoor. East Devon is characterised by clay rich heavy soils and light textured soils running approximately north south in river catchments. Mid Devon has striated bands of clay rich heavy soils.
• Soil type is a major factor in determining the type of agriculture that can be supported. Generally light textured soils support cereals and horticulture while shallow chalk limestone soils support grazing and cereals. Clay rich heavy soils often underlie dairy pasture. Medium textured soils can support both arable and livestock farming.
• The latest (2010) DEFRA agricultural census data for Plymouth & Torbay & Devon County Council indicates almost 486 000ha of farmed land supports over 8100 farms of which 1476 are greater than 100ha in size. 5% of this farmed area is wheat - the dominant arable crop. 63% of the farmed land is permanent grass supporting almost 236,000 dairy cattle, about 31% of the total dairy herd in the South West .

Source : DEFRA

• For the period April 2005 - March 2010 inclusive, there were 2 incidents of major impact to air, 2 to land, and 11 to water in Devon County area.

• In addition for the same period, there were 3 incidents of significant impact to air, 8 incidents of significant impact to both land and water, 69 incidents of significant impact to water, and an additional 23 incidents of significant impact to land.

• For the period April 2010 - March 2011 inclusive, there was 1 incident of major impact to water (none to land or air) in Devon County area. This incident occurred in Torridge District Council area.

• For the same period, there were 3 incidents of significant impact to air, 19 incidents of significant impact to water, with 2 of them also of significant impact to land. In addition, there were 2 further incidents of significant impact to land.

• During 2009/10 there were 4421* reported incidents of flytipping in Devon, the third highest for a county or unitary authority in the region. This was a 10% decrease from 4895 incidents in 2008/09.

* Please note: There is no County level data available on flytipping. Figures here are based on aggregated district level totals.

Please note: incidents of fly tipping are reported differently by each council. One may log black bin bags out on an incorrect day as a fly tipping incident where another council do not log this. Please be aware of these reporting discrepancies on Flycapture when looking at the data in comparison to other councils.

• Devon County Council was middle of the table within the South West, of  residual waste produced with 523.59 kg/household. 

• In 2009/10, South Hams had the lowest level of residual waste in the South West with 341.04kg/household. The highest in the South West was Isles of Scilly Council with 1,452kg/household.       

• Recycling and composting has increased significantly in the South West, from 14.9% in 2000 / 2001 to 43.5% in 2009 / 2010.

• Devon County Council in 2009/10 had the fourth highest level of recycling in the South West with 57.2%.
• The highest rate of recycling in the SW was Cotswold District Council with 60.4%,  and the lowest rate in the SW was Isles of Scilly with 18.9%.

Source: DEFRA  

• Devon County Council landfilled 46.45%, however this equated to the largest amount in tonnes landfilled in the South West with 194,720 tonnes.

• Bournemouth Borough Council landfilled the least percentage waste in 2009/10 (37.8%). Plymouth City Council landfilled the largest percentage of waste in 2009/10 (64%).