Alkali Environmental Consultants
Matthew O'Neill
Divisional Director — Consultancy
Head of Consultancy at Alkali with 20+ years in UK air quality, dispersion modelling, ambient monitoring and environmental permitting across regulator, local authority and consultancy roles.
About Matthew
Matthew is Head of the Consultancy Division at Alkali Environmental Consultants, a highly experienced air quality and environmental compliance specialist with over 20 years' experience spanning consultancy, regulatory bodies, local government and the private sector.
His career includes senior technical roles within the Environment Agency, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and national UK air quality programmes, giving him deep, practical experience in environmental regulation, air quality strategy, industrial emissions, ambient air quality monitoring and compliance-focused consultancy support for regulated operators.
Matthew previously acted as Lead Air Quality Specialist for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, where he played a key role in delivering the Greater Manchester Clean Air Strategy, one of the UK's most significant regional air quality programmes, focused on reducing exposure to transport and industrial emissions across the city region.
He also served as Project Lead for the UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN), the UK's largest automatic air quality monitoring network and the principal national network used for compliance reporting against the Ambient Air Quality Directives. The AURN monitors oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), ozone (O₃), carbon monoxide (CO), PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ across the UK, delivering high-resolution air quality data used by regulators, local authorities and public information systems.
Within consultancy, Matthew specialises in air quality and odour dispersion modelling, ambient air quality monitoring and environmental permitting support for complex industrial and waste-sector operations. His project experience includes construction dust monitoring, boundary monitoring, industrial emissions assessment, operational air quality assessments and technical support for Environment Agency permit applications, variations and compliance programmes.
At Alkali Environmental Consultants, Matthew leads the consultancy division across air quality, odour, environmental permitting and environmental compliance services, supporting industrial operators, developers and regulated facilities throughout the UK. He works closely with technical specialists across stack emissions testing, monitoring and permitting teams to deliver practical, regulator-aware environmental consultancy support tailored to complex operational sites.
His work focuses on helping operators understand and manage environmental risk clearly and defensibly, translating technical monitoring data, dispersion modelling outputs and regulatory guidance into practical compliance strategies that support both operational performance and permitting requirements.
