After Portsmouth City Council submitted its final Clean Air Zone (CAZ) plans last week, Cllr Dave Ashmore, cabinet member for Environment & Climate Change, has blasted the government saying they are ‘imposing’ the CAZ on the city and have ignored suggestions by the local authority to improve air quality.
In September, the council rubber-stamped a Class B CAZ, which will charge older, polluting buses, coaches, taxis, and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) entering the city each day, but would not charge private cars, as the council has said introducing a tougher CAZ could have a negative effect on residents and businesses.
They also said that a Class D CAZ, which charges drivers of private vehicles, would not be any faster in reaching legal compliance on nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which they expect to be in 2022.
Current air pollution hotspots in Portsmouth include the end of the M275 motorway spur into the city and the area around Unicorn Gate, an entry point to its naval dockyard.
Portsmouth’s CAZ was initially going to cover all the Portsea Island area. However, they have now decided to make the zone’s boundary smaller and exclude Portsmouth International Port, which is owned by the council.
In 2018, Defra issued a ministerial direction to 33 councils, including Portsmouth, requiring them to come up with a plan to cut roadside NO2 pollution in ‘the shortest possible time.’
Cllr Ashmore said: ‘Although we are responding to the government’s imposition of a CAZ I have always said this alone is not the solution.
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