Bury Council approves Clean Air Plan for Greater Manchester

Bury Council’s cabinet has approved Greater Manchester’s final Clean Air Plan to tackle the problem of air pollution on local roads, which contributes towards at least 1,200 deaths per year in the city-region.

All ten Greater Manchester (GM) councils considered the GM Clean Air Plan at meetings taking place throughout July, after the plan was endorsed by the ten GM local authority leaders at a GMCA meeting on June 25.

The Clean Air Plan includes proposals for a GM-wide Clean Air Zone, which is anticipated to launch on 30 May 2022, alongside more than £120m government funding to support local businesses upgrade to cleaner, compliant vehicles so they can travel in the Zone without incurring a daily charge.

Applications for funding support will open from the end of November this year. This will be essential to support impacted vehicle owners to upgrade, while facing the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillor Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, climate change and operations, said: “We have already declared a climate emergency and set a target for Bury to be carbon neutral by 2038.

“Bury and the other nine councils in Greater Manchester are under direction from the Government to introduce a charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ), in the shortest time possible, to ensure nitrogen dioxide (N02) emissions are within legal limits by 2024.

“Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to our health. While most motorways and trunk roads won’t be included in the CAZ, approving this plan is a major step towards cutting pollution levels.

“It’s absolutely crucial we act now to clean-up the air that we breath, to protect the health and wellbeing of our communities, now and for future generations.“

While the Covid-19 pandemic led to brief air quality improvements, modelling shows it is not expected to lead to long-term reductions in roadside pollution without implementing a Clean Air Zone.

The ten GM councils are under direction from government to introduce a category C* charging Clean Air Zone – including commercial and passenger vehicles but not private cars – to secure compliance with NO₂ legal limits on local roads in the shortest possible time, and by 2024 at the latest.

Following feedback from more than 4,000 people during an eight-week consultation on the proposals held last year, the Clean Air Plan has been updated to take into account the impact of COVID-19, particularly on small businesses.

In light of that feedback the final plan gives small businesses, GM-licensed hackney cab and private hire vehicle (PHV) owners and LGV owners more time, money and options to upgrade.

This includes temporary exemptions for an additional year (until 31 May 2023) for all hackney cabs and PHVs licensed by a GM district. Vans, minibuses, GM-registered coaches and wheelchair-accessible taxis were already exempt from daily charges until 2023.

Increased funding support per vehicle is also available for HGVs, coaches, vans, and GM-licensed hackney cabs and PHVs. Vans can now access up to £4.5k towards the replacement of a vehicle – £1k more than initially proposed – and GM hackney cabs can get up to £10k. HGVs can now get up to £12k towards replacement, nearly three times more than was initially offered, and coaches are now eligible for £32k.

The funding will help eligible non-compliant vehicle owners to upgrade to cleaner non-compliant vehicles and not have to pay a daily charge, with the funding expected to be available from November. This includes:

• Clean Commercial Vehicle Fund: £87.9m for vans, HGVs, coaches and minibuses.
• Clean Taxi Fund: £21.4m for GM-licensed taxi and private hire vehicle owners, drivers and operators to switch to cleaner vehicles.
• Bus Retrofit Fund: £14.7 million to retrofit non-compliant buses running services in GM
• Bus Replacement Fund: £3.2 million to support replacement of non-compliant buses that can’t be retrofitted

Feedback from last year’s public consultation highlighted that motorhomes can be classified in more than one way by the DVLA. As a result, subject to all ten local authorities approving the Clean Air Plan, a consultation will be held for six weeks from 1 September on the inclusion of motorhomes classified as MSP1 in the GM Clean Air Zone. At the same time, a consultation would also be held on a minor change to the boundary to include the A575 and A580 at Worsley, following consultation feedback.

More information is available at cleanairgm.com, where people can also sign up for updates.

*A Category C class Clean Air Zone includes non-compliant buses and coaches, Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs), Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) or vans, minibuses, taxis and private hire vehicles.

ENDS

Press release issued: 16 August 2021.