Issue - meetings

Poor air quality is the largest known environmental risk to public health in the UK. Investing in cleaner air and doing more to tackle air pollution are priorities for the EU and UK governments, as well as for Bath and North East Somerset Council (B&NES). B&NES has monitored and endeavoured to address air quality in Bath, and the wider B&NES area, since 2002. Despite this, Bath has ongoing exceedances of the legal limits for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and these are predicted to continue until 2025 without intervention.

This report provides a further update on the report in September 2019 and sets out the decisions required to progress the project.

Councillor Vic Pritchard asked for a point of clarification by saying that not so long ago it was said that vehicles which would meet the following minimum emission standards for Bath would be free of charge:

• Euro 6/VI (or newer) diesel vehicles registered from c. 2015
• Euro 4/IV (or newer) petrol vehicles registered from c.2006
• Electric vehicles
• Hybrid vehicles
• Alternatively fuelled vehicles

However, Councillor Pritchard felt that the report suggested that all car drivers would be exempt from charges.  Councillor Pritchard asked which option was correct.

Councillors Sarah Warren and Richard Samuel explained that minimum emission standards would apply to all vehicles that were not private cars and motorbikes.  Private cars and motorbikes would be exempt from charges.

Councillor Sarah Warren read out the following statement:

‘Today, we are discussing the Final Business Case to Government for funding for Bath’s Clean Air Plan. Air pollution is one of the environmental challenges of our times. The British Heart Foundation says that living in the most polluted areas of the UK is as deadly as smoking 150 cigarettes a year, so it is absolutely vital that we reduce pollution levels here in Bath. 92% of nitrogen dioxide emissions in this city currently arise from road traffic. This Clean Air Zone proposes to provide support for local businesses to upgrade their vehicles to less polluting models, and will form the springboard for further measures aimed at giving people alternatives to the private car, and encouraging their use.

I want to thank the council officers who have worked so hard on what I believe is one of the most challenging projects they have had to deal with. The modelling of both traffic flows and air pollution is highly technical, and at the cutting edge of current understanding, and this work has been carried out within parameters and a timescale that have been very tightly defined by Government, whilst rightly, under close scrutiny from the media and the public.

I also want to thank the public for their constructive and enthusiastic participation in our two consultation processes. They attended open events, and wrote in with their suggestions, in very large numbers. Their help has been invaluable in ironing out the unintended consequences that might have arisen, had the council gone live with earlier iterations of the proposal, and in ensuring we have the best fit scheme that we can for Bath, within the government’s tight parameters.

The scheme we are proposing is a “Class C” Clean Air Zone, which will see non-compliant, highly polluting HGVs, buses, vans, and taxis charged to enter the zone. You will remember that the council previously consulted on the possibility of charging private cars, and that the majority of the record 8000 respondents expressed concern about the impact on local families of such a measure. But without charging cars, the only way that legal compliance can be achieved is to introduce so-called “traffic management” at Queen Square, so as to reduce the flow of traffic past a key pollution  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57