Issue - meetings

The attached report reviews the performance of the first calendar year of the Clean Air Zone in Bath from 15 March 2021 - 31 December 2021.

Cllr Sarah Warren introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and made the following statement:

“Air pollution is estimated to cause around 80 deaths a day across the UK, with approximately 80 per year in Bath and North East Somerset. Bath’s Clean Air Zone was the first such charging zone outside London, when it was introduced on 15th March 2021, and is designed to tackle high atmospheric levels of the dangerous pollutant nitrogen dioxide, which largely originates from traffic in our city, and affects the health of our most vulnerable residents. The aim of the zone is to bring annual nitrogen dioxide levels below the legal limit value of 40g/m3, by deterring the most polluting vehicles from entering the city centre.

Tonight, we are considering the 2021 annual report on air quality, vehicle compliance, and traffic displacement, which covers the calendar year 2021, the first calendar year during which the Clean Air Zone was live.

During the year, we saw overall traffic levels return from lockdown to pre-covid levels in the city, with light goods vehicles reaching 112% and heavy goods vehicles 110% of their pre-covid numbers, owing to pandemic-related changes in shopping patterns. Over this period, we have also seen business thriving, with footfall in the city’s shops returning close to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.

A key purpose of the zone is to encourage the upgrade of the most polluting vehicles, and we were able to make substantial funds available through grants and interest-free finance to support this. As at the end of December, some 722 of the most polluting vehicles had been replaced through this route, rising to 859 by the end of May this year.

Throughout much of 2021, we saw dramatic changes to traffic flows around the city centre arising not only from lockdown, but also from the complete closure of Cleveland Bridge, which normally carries some 17,000 vehicles per day. We have, of course, been monitoring roads around the CAZ carefully to establish whether there is evidence of the displacement of traffic from the zone, wherever the public have expressed concern, as early modelling of the CAZ suggested displacement might be possible. The analysis of this data so far shows no ongoing significant displacement impacts due to the introduction of the scheme. However, monitoring will continue at some of these sites for some time, as traffic flows settle down following the various disruptions of the last couple of years.

Notwithstanding recent changes to traffic flow, the really great news is that overall, air quality continues to improve both within and outside the zone, with average reductions in nitrogen dioxide levels of 21% inside, 22% in the urban area outside the zone, and 18% in the rest of Bath & North East Somerset over the year, compared to the calendar year 2019 before the pandemic. By the end of 2021, we observed that over 90% of HGVs and taxis, 100% of scheduled bus services, and 80% of vans driving in the zone  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20