CLEANER AIR MEASURES ‘MAY GO AFTER 5 YEARS’
New buses could bring emissions to acceptable level by then
ROAD charges for polluting vehicles entering the city centre could be removed after just five years.
Stoke-on-trent City Council is planning to introduce a clean air zone (CAZ) for much of Hanley and Fenton to reduce illegal levels of traffic-related pollution in Victoria Road.
The class C CAZ would impose charges on the most polluting lorries, vans, taxis and buses – but private cars would not be affected.
The council expects it will become operational in late 2024 – six years after the Government first ordered the city and Newcastle Borough Council to tackle nitrogen dioxide (NO2) hot spots.
Excessive NO2 levels can cause or exacerbate various respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD, both of which are at above average rates in Stoke-on-trent.
But a new council report says the replacement of dirty, older vehicles with newer, cleaner ones could reduce NO2 levels in Victoria Road to acceptable levels by 2029 – meaning the CAZ would no longer be necessary.
It also says a bus gate due to be installed at the top of Basford Bank in 2023, which would ban most Newcastle-bound traffic during rush hours to cut NO2 levels in Etruria Road, may no longer be necessary beyond 2028, for the same reason.
City council cabinet members will be updated on the North Staffordshire Local Air Quality Plan (NSLAQP) next Tuesday.
They will be asked to approve the proposed measures and the appointment of advisors, consultants and lawyers to help deliver the plan.
A total of £2.285 million – funded by government – is to be spent on delivering the NSLAQP this year. There will be further expenditure in 2023/24, subject to further grant funding being received from the Government.
The report states: “With the passage of time, more and more newer vehicles enter the fleet which emit lower levels of pollution.
“A stage is therefore reached where both the proposed bus gate on Etruria Road and the CAZ C to tackle the Victoria Road NO2 concentration exceedance can be removed, without increasing NO2 concentrations to above the statutory limit.
“Based on air quality modelling results, it is anticipated that this will occur around 2028 for Etruria Road and 2029 for Victoria Road, although this is subject to validation through monitoring and evaluation.”
The councils were among several local authorities to be the subject of a ministerial direction in 2018, which instructed them to reduce NO2 levels at the hotspots in Victoria Road, Basford Bank and Bucknall New Road.
The first phase of the NSLAQP will bring 20 new buses and the retrofitting of 18 more this year, at a cost of £865,000.
Another £509,000 of Government cash will be spent on the bus gate this year, with £911,000 to be spent on the CAZ.