Listen to this article here
|
Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has issued a further statement on the planned Clean Air Zone, setting out alternative options for the Secretary of State for the Environment to consider in light of challenges for businesses in complying with new rules.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) wrote to Environment Secretary, George Eustice, at the end of January to be allowed to amend plans for a charging Clean Air Zone due to come into effect in May 2022. Original plans will see the most polluting commercial vehicles face a daily charge when travelling on Greater Manchester’s roads in a bid to drive down harmful NO2 air pollution across the city-region as mandated by government.
While over £120 million of financial support for businesses is available to help them retrofit or replace vehicles with less polluting alternatives, global supply challenges and a spike in inflation have impacted organisations’ abilities to procure new vehicles in time.
In a statement published on the GMCA website, Mayor Andy Burnham has set out three alternatives for the Secretary of State to consider that would see the introduction of the Clean Air Zone delayed until 2025, 2026, and 2027.
He stated that as plans for the Clean Air Zone were agreed prior to the coronavirus pandemic, it is unworkable for the government not to consider changes to the scheme.
In addition to delays, Andy Burnham has also proposed that parts of the scheme coming into effect from May 2022 are non-charging and instead used to signpost non-compliant vehicle owners to support He also proposes that all private-use vehicles are exempted, extending the existing exemption to motorhomes, camper-vans and horseboxes. Furthermore, should the scheme’s introduction be delayed, the Mayor also proposes reducing the scale of the charging zone, with a 2027 delay removing the need for the zone altogether.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham concluded his statement, saying:
Only the Government can decide on the timescales for compliance and I have set out the scenarios for 2025, 2026 and 2027. It is up to them which of these scenarios it imposes on Greater Manchester.
Failure to lift the current Ministerial Direction leaves all ten councils with a scheme that will harm businesses and, according to the latest evidence, not achieve compliance by 2024.
A delay to 2026 or 2027 will make the CAZ much fairer whilst still achieving compliance by the middle of this decade.
Andy Burnham’s full statement is available from the GMCA website.
Find out if your vehicle will be affected by the Clean Air Zone here.