A CRIMINAL investigation was launched this week into Waverley Borough Council’s botched 2016 Air Quality Annual Status Report after the results of an independent audit into the brewing scandal was referred to Surrey Police.

It leaves Waverley facing a possible six-figure fine, The Herald understands, amid claims it grossly under-estimated the scale of Farnham’s air pollution problem and submitted misleading data to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

But the council is yet to publicly release the audit report or reissue its withdrawn 2016 air quality report - leaving a huge question mark as to whether Farnham has a pollution problem or not, at a time when planning appeals for more than 500 homes in the town area are to be determined in coming weeks.

A force spokesman said: “Surrey Police are investigating following concerns reported over an official council environmental report.

“No arrests have been made and an investigation is ongoing to establish whether any criminal offences have taken place.”

A Waverley spokesman told The Herald: “The final version of the audit report has been received and passed onto the police, who are now investigating. We can’t say anymore until their investigation is completed.”

It comes after Waverley commissioned an independent review of its 2016 Air Quality report last August following complaints by the Farnham Society and air quality expert David Harvey that officers had got their figures wrong.

The error was confirmed by red-faced council chiefs a month later - calling into question the validity of previous annual reports that have used the same basis of calculation, and prompting a comprehensive audit of the borough’s air quality monitoring and reporting arrangements.

Waverley is duty-bound to submit an annual report to DEFRA after an air quality management area was declared in Farnham in 2004, following the discovery of excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide which has been linked to as many as 40,000 premature deaths every year in the UK.

The council’s latest report, published last May, claimed air pollution – and specifically levels of nitrogen dioxide – only ‘slightly exceeded’ the national objective at three monitoring stations in Farnham.

Waverley’s situation bears painful similarities with Cheshire East Council, which admitted ‘falsifying’ its own air quality figures last year, requiring hundreds of planning applications to be reviewed and prompting an ongoing police investigation.

Responding to the criminal investigation into Waverley’s own botched report this week, Mr Harvey told The Herald: “I am baffled as to why what seemed to be a case of discourteous incompetence has been referred to the police to investigate.

“There does seem to be similarities with the between what is going on at Waverley and East Cheshire where the police were called in to investigate what appears to have been ‘deliberate and systematic manipulation of data’ and perhaps is pointing to a wider problem with how local authorities are undertaking their statutory duties to review and assess air quality.

“I have no idea what the police have actually been asked to investigate and cannot understand how it could have come to this. I have been in contact with Waverley since first drawing attention to the problem in May last year and have been impressed by how pro-active they have been since understanding there was a problem with the data.

“I hope they will now release the corrected and updated 2016 monitoring report.”

Ex-borough councillor Roger Steel, who was also a member of Waverley’s executive, said: “If it is the case Waverley knew its figures were wrong when submitting them to Defra, it could be very, very serious indeed.

“The Environment Act 1995 makes clear local authorities are obliged to monitor local air quality and submit their findings to Defra – and can be penalised if they break this law.

“I’ve been writing to Waverley for years saying they are breaking this law, and the council’s leadership has got to take overall responsibility.”