AIR quality maps will show exactly how fresh the air is where you live.

Cheshire West and Chester Council have begun publishing their work to monitor air quality on new web pages.

Residents can find out what the air is like where they live or work just by typing in a postcode.

A series of links within the maps go to current air pollution levels, monitoring graphs, historical data and permitted processes regulated by the council. The provision of real-time data on graphs – updated every 15 minutes – means you can also search by location or pollutant.Š

Councillor Lynn Riley, executive member for community and environment, said: “We understand that many people in our communities are concerned about air pollution and the improvements we have made are in direct response to what our communities are telling us.

“We hope that being able to monitor your local environment in real time, will provide some reassurance to our residents, and also provide opportunities for people to get involved with the things within their area that really matter to them.”

The interactive maps can be used to obtain information about current air pollution levels from sophisticated real-time monitoring stations, historical readings from more than 80 diffusion tube sites and the industrial processes regulated by the council.