Whether your site sits inside an Air Quality Management Area is one of the first screening questions in UK planning — it changes what your council expects with your application. This free checker tests your postcode against the AQMA boundaries published on the government's planning data platform, instantly.
AQMA postcode checker
The checker needs JavaScript enabled. Without it, you can browse declared AQMAs on Defra's UK-AIR site.
What is an AQMA?
Councils must review local air quality under the Local Air Quality Management regime. Where an air quality objective is not being met — overwhelmingly the annual nitrogen dioxide objective beside busy roads — the council declares an AQMA and publishes an action plan. Across the UK there are currently 399 AQMA declarations for NO₂ and 58 for PM₁₀; we break the register down nation by nation in our AQMA numbers for 2026.
What does being in an AQMA mean for planning?
- New homes in an AQMA — expect the council to ask how future residents' exposure has been considered; an air quality assessment is commonly required.
- Schemes adding traffic or parking — the EPUK/IAQM screening criteria apply, in or near an AQMA.
- Demolition and earthworks — construction dust assessments to IAQM guidance are triggered near existing homes regardless of AQMA status.
- Outside an AQMA? Not automatically in the clear — exposure next to congested roads can still require assessment, and some councils have revoked AQMAs while keeping air-quality validation requirements.
Honest limits of this checker
It tests the single point of your postcode against boundaries published to planning.data.gov.uk (England). Postcodes cover small areas, boundaries change as councils declare and revoke — Elmbridge revoked all six of its AQMAs in February 2026, for example — and being just outside a boundary can matter as much as being inside. Treat the result as screening, and check your council's current position before relying on it.
How Fortress Associates can help
Our automated air quality assessment produces a planning-ready AQA in minutes, free — using live Defra background maps, national AQMA boundaries, monitoring data and DfT traffic counts, following EPUK/IAQM criteria, IAQM dust guidance (v2.2, January 2024) and LAQM.TG(22), for every UK local authority. Try our other free planning tools, see all services or contact us.
Sources & further reading
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