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With the Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone being implemented on Stockport roads from Spring 2022, HGV owners in the borough are being urged to check whether they could access funding to help comply with the new rules to help reduce harmful air pollution.
Under the Clean Air Zone, commercial vehicles which do not meet emission standards will face a daily charge when using the road network in Greater Manchester. To help businesses, sole traders and other organisations comply with the new rules, the city-region has secured £120 million of funding from central government to help those affected upgrade to compliant vehicles and avoid a charge.
Financial Support Scheme applications are now open for GM-registered HGVs, to give them the maximum amount of time to apply, since they are included in the zone from its launch, with £7.6 million initially available for HGV owners across Greater Manchester.
The first round of funding will aim to support GM’s smaller businesses, sole traders and the voluntary sector and clean up the oldest, dirtiest vehicles.
Funding for GM-licensed PHV and hackney carriages, coaches, minibuses and LGVs will launch at the end of January 2022, as these vehicles will not be subject to Clean Air Zone rules until 1 June 2023.
A vehicle checker is live on the Clean Air GM website to help businesses understand if their vehicles will be compliant with the new rules and whether or not they are eligible to apply for funding. The GC Business Growth Hub has also set up a dedicated enquiry team to answer queries from organisations about the zone.
Greater Manchester’s councils are under direction from government to introduce the category C Clean Air Zone to secure compliance with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) legal limits on local roads in the shortest possible time, and by 2024 at the latest. Dirty air contributes towards at least 1,200 deaths per year in the city-region.