Call to reveal cost of clean air signs

MP Jake Berry is demanding to know how much the signage for Greater Manchester’s failed Clean Air Zone cost council tax payers.

Rossendale and Darwen’s Tory backbencher Mr Berry has written to the city region’s mayor Andy Burnham asking for a breakdown of spending on the notices.

In March West Pennine Conservative Cllr Jean Rigby called for the redundant signs in Edgworth to be removed after the project was ‘paused’.

Earlier this year, Mr Burnham paused the scheme which had alarmed the neighbouring

Blackburn with Darwen and Rossendale Councils who were concerned about its impact on businesses in their boroughs.

The Government had required Greater Manchester to implement a Clean Air Zone to reduce air pollution in the region; Andy Burnham said earlier this month original plans to have a fee-paying scheme will be scrapped “if the Government agrees to it”, and if the Government wants fee-paying restrictions it must implement them itself.

Mr Berry MP has requested that he reveals the full costs of the signage installed across Greater Manchester and surrounding boroughs earlier this year.

In his letter Jake Berry asks that the mayor provide a full breakdown of the initial costs incurred installing all signage relating to the zone across Greater Manchester and the surrounding boroughs.

also requests an additional breakdown of the additional costs incurred amending the signs across Greater Manchester and surrounding boroughs, due to the changes.

However Mr Berry doesn’t acknowledge in his letter that Clean Air Zones are a Conservative Government directive as part of its work ordering all areas of the country to bring down air pollution by 2024, with different cities and regions taking different approaches, including Clean Air Zones.

The former Northern Powerhouse minister said: “The Mayor of Greater Manchester pursued this so-called Clean Air Zone despite widespread concerns from the public, businesses, and local MPs about the impact it would have on our economy and jobs not just in Manchester but in neighbouring areas like here in Rossendale and Darwen.

“My constituents therefore have the right to know how much public money the mayor wasted on the Clean Air Zone signage that he installed and then had to amend.

“So, I have written to him to urge him to be transparent and make the figures public.”