Birmingham is on track to launch the UK’s first clean air zone outside London to charge private cars, despite several other councils deciding to pull the plug on their plans in light of the pandemic.
The city s deputy leader Brigid Jones (Lab) told LGC the move was “the only solution right now that s going to cut it” in tackling pollution.
Last month Bath City Council became the first area outside the capital to launch a clean air zone, four years after the government lost a court case over breaches of legal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in England and then mandated dozens of the most polluted areas to produce plans to bring down NO2 levels to within the legal minimum levels in the shortest possible time .
HGVs on the A350 arriving at Westbury from Warminster HGV’s
Photo Trevor Porter A PETITION has been launched to get Bath council to work with Wiltshire over concerns of increased air pollution in the county as a result of the clean air zone. Conservative councillor, Phil Alford, who represents Melksham Without North started the petition “stop polluting Wiltshire Roads with Bath CAZ traffic” to hold the Somerset authority to task. To date, the petition has been backed by more than 300 people and asked the Bath & North East Somerset Council to work with Wiltshire in monitoring concerns over air pollution from increased HGV traffic.