Air quality in Swindon is better than expected, councillors have been told.

But efforts to improve it further could see restrictions on use of open fires and woodburners inside people's home.

In response to a motion agreed by the council in March, officers divided the borough into 14 grid squares, all of equal size, and measured the amount of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 in the air.

The cabinet member for climate change Keith Williams told a meeting: “PM2.5 is pollution released from things like diesel vehicles and solid fuel in homes.

"I wasn’t aware until this report that a significant level of it is blown into the UK from Europe and Africa. Around 20 per cent of the particulate in the air here comes from this source.”

Coun Williams said the results of the investigation were encouraging.

“It is important to acknowledge that air quality in Swindon is, in fact; good. It is significantly better than historically and is improving," he said.

“Every grid square in Swindon meets UK legal limits for PM2.5, by a wide margin.

"The grid square with the highest level in Swindon has an estimated ambient level of less than half of the limit.

"All but 14 grid squares in Swindon meet the much lower World Health Organisation advisory target of in 2021, and models show that this will fall to four grid squares by 2025.”

The report says that particulate pollution can not be fixed just by local action, because much of it comes form a long distance away.

It says action is required nationally and internationally and previous legislation has cut the emissions of PM2.5 particles by 75 per cent.

But the rate of drop has slowed because of the growth of using biomass fuels – particularly in domestic fires and woodburners.

Labour spokesman on the environment and climate change Jane Milner-Barry said: “Given the report says there is no safe level of PM2.5 pollution, and that it is estimated to be responsible for five per cent of deaths in the borough, perhaps it’s more accurate to say the air in Swindon is relatively good, or relatively not bad."

She added: "This report doesn’t consider nitrogen dioxide at all."

The report, which was agreed by the cabinet, gives the director of public health authority to use existing laws on woodburners and to 'gather information on the prevalence of domestic solid fuel burning in Swindon with a view to considering whether a Smoke Control Area could make an effective contribution to lowering PM2.5'.