Dozens of towns may charge fees for diesel cars

CHARGES on polluting vehicles entering town and city centres could be introduced in dozens of areas under plans to help improve air quality.

Ministers have already announced plans to impose “clean air zones” in five cities to help tackle dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide, but have now confirmed that other areas will be encouraged to follow suit.

MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee are calling for “new clean air zones in dozens of English towns and cities to cut the risk of cardiac, respiratory and other diseases”.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that other areas had the power to introduce charges on polluting vehicles and that it had “received interest from other cities to put in place a clean air zone”.

The five clean air zones proposed by the Government last year will be imposed in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020 and will involve charges for old diesel lorries, vans and taxis.

But ministers have also said they will “work with other cities that wanted to be more ‘ambitious’ in cutting emissions below legal levels”, a report by the Efra committee says.

Defra said that local authorities could also charge private car drivers if they wished, although this would not be ordered by the Government.

Campaign group ClientEarth, which prompted the government strategy on air quality via a legal challenge, has already dismissed the plans for five clean air zones as inadequate and demanded they be introduced in more areas.

Alan Andrews, a lawyer at the group, said: “This is a public health crisis, it’s time for the Government to act in the interests of our health.”

The Efra committee report also called for a scrappage scheme for old diesel cars to encourage drivers to trade them in for more expensive lowemission vehicles.