North Somerset (Local Environment Profile 2011)

• There is no area designated as having poor air quality, requiring an Air Quality Management Area.

Source : DEFRA

• There are 20 river water bodies within North Somerset. Our latest assessment of these classified 5% as poor, 75% as moderate and 20% as good.

• This was one of the better results for West of England Unitary authorities.

• The main reasons for less than good status include higher levels of nutrients e.g. ammonia, phosphate.

• 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  

• In 2005 both the South West Region and the UK, the largest landuse came from Green Space with 90.7% and 87.5% respectively. The next largest area of land cover came in the form of domestic gardens with 3.1% in the South West, and 4.3% for the UK average.

• In North Somerset, the two largest landuses are the same, however domestic gardens is significantly higher with 6.8% and green space is lower with 78.5%.

• 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. 

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 North Somerset Council, there is a small 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 is one Catchment Sensitive Farming project in North Somerset. This is  the Somerset Levels and Bridgewater Bay, which covers an area of 2,535km2.

• North Somerset area shows an extremely diverse range of soil types along an east west direction with the western half of the area dominated by alluvial soils. The eastern half is dominated by clay rich heavy soils and shallow chalk and limestone.

• 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. 

• The latest detailed DEFRA data (2007) on the number of holdings (farm types) within North Somerset indicates over 58% of farms support lowland grazing (sheep and beef) 14% dairy and 13% horticulture.

Source: DEFRA

• For the period April 2005-March 2010 inc, there was 1 incident of major impact to water. In addition there were 2 incidents of significant impact to land, and a further 3 of significant impact to water.

• For the period April 2010- March 2011 inc, there were no incidents of major or significant impact to land, air or water in North Somerset. 

Source: Environment Agency

• During 2009/10 there were 1662 reported incidents of flytipping in North Somerset, the sixth highest for a district or unitary authority in the region. This was a 7% increase from 1559 incidents in 2008/09. There were 3 prosecutions for flytipping, all of which had successful outcomes.

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.

• 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. 

• North Somerset Council had the second highest amount of residual waste in the South West with 705.43 kg/household. This was the highest to be produced in the West of England Counties.

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

• North Somerset Council in 2009/10 against the other South West Councils, was in the bottom half of the recycling league table with 37.25%. 

• 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  

• 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%).  Devon County Council however landfilled the largest amount in tonnes with 194,720 tonnes. 

• North Somerset Council landfilled 63,249 tonnes, which was the seventh lowest amount of tonnes landfilled in the South West. However, they were also the fifth highest percentage landfilled (59.1%) in the South West.