Pollution tax on the cards for city

Controversial charges could be enforced on lorries, buses and taxis heading into the centre of Yorkshire’s largest city to meet air pollution targets. Leeds City Council has proposed an outer ring road, referred to as the Clean Air Zone.

CONTROVERSIAL CHARGES could be enforced on lorries, buses and taxis heading into the centre of Yorkshire’s largest city to meet air pollution targets.

Leeds City Council will today reveal that charges could be imposed as it emerged that thousands of premature deaths will be avoided if walking and cycling targets are met in England and Scotland.

The sustainable transport charity Sustrans said its research is the first to reveal the health and financial benefits of improving air quality by reducing the number of journeys made by motorised vehicles.

In July, Leeds was identified as one of 29 local authorities whose roads breached legal pollution levels.

The city council needs to ensure that its road emissions are less than 40mcg per cubic metre of nitrogen dioxide.

An authority is in breach of the law when its annual average exceeds that figure.

Leeds City Council has now put forward proposals that would see the introduction of an outer ring road, referred to as the Clean Air Zone (CAZ), that would stretch to parts of the M1, M62 and M621.

Buses and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) that enter this zone would have to be classed as Euro6 – which covers vehicles produced from September 2015 onwards.

Taxis that fall foul of this that enter the CAZ would incur a charge of £12.50 per day while the cost for buses and HGVs would be £100.

As part of a consultation, the council is also exploring the possibility of shifting taxis and private-hire fleet to become ultralow-emission vehicles (ULEVs) – a more efficient emissions standard than Euro6.

Certain classes of vehicle will be exempt, such as wheelchairaccessible taxis, emergency services and private vehicles.

Leeds City Council’s director of resources and housing Neil Evans says the West Yorkshire city has already addressed its emission levels, but he admitted that more needs to be done.

“We are making an improvement – it’s just not quick enough,” said Mr Evans.

“In order to accelerate that, we are proposing that buses, taxis and HGVs that are pre-2015 would be hit with a significant charge which will encourage that industry to make the investment to move over.

“Taxis and private hire will be the ones most affected so we’re looking for a big package to support them to move up to hybrid and electric, which would improve the air quality.

“The fuel savings can be dramatic but we need to provide bridging funds and do it in a way that doesn’t penalise people.”

The report is due to go before the council’s executive board on December 13, with the first consultation lasting from January until the end of February.

The plans came amid the backdrop of the report published yesterday by Sustrans, which says rolling out segregated cycle lanes and developing quieter routes across the UK is needed to reduce the reliance on cars.

The analysis found that more than 8,300 premature deaths from air pollution in England would be prevented over ten years if the Government’s aims of doubling cycling and increasing walking were achieved.

This would also save the economy £567m each year from cleaner air, according to the analysis.

Sustrans’ chief executive Xavier Brice said: “At a time when road transport is responsible for the majority of air quality limit breaches in the UK, it has never been more important to reduce the number of motorised vehicles on our roads.”