Courtesy of : – ClientEarth Communications
Air pollution has been far above legal limits in the UK for 10 years and Bristolians have suffered the consequences.
Bristol has been identified as the place where air pollution has increased the most since the first lockdown.
If no action is taken, the Council has shown that illegal levels of air pollution will persist in Bristol for another ten years – bringing it to 20 years beyond the original deadline to meet legal limits.
ClientEarth won three court cases against the UK government for its failure to act on toxic air. Our court cases resulted in the government requiring a number of English local authorities to produce and implement local air quality plans to meet legal limits in the shortest time possible – as laid out in the law. Bristol City Council was one of those local authorities.
Bristol City Council’s failure to clean up the air
In 2017, the government mandated Bristol City Council to look at how it could meet legal limits in the city to protect people’s health with no further delay. The Council should have presented a final plan by the end of 2018, but it failed to do so and it has since missed multiple extended government deadlines.
Road transport is the main source of illegal levels of air pollution in Bristol and private cars are responsible for over half of road emissions in some locations.
Last summer, the Council consulted on proposals to restrict the use of diesel vehicles in the city centre at certain times of day, or a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) to restrict the most polluting vans, buses, coaches and lorries across a larger area.
Analysis from the UK government and local authorities across the country shows that Clean Air Zones are the most effective way to quickly reduce illegal air pollution. In our view, they should also be coupled with help and support for people and businesses, in particular people on low incomes and small businesses, to move to cleaner forms of transport.
Bath and Birmingham will become the first cities after London to implement CAZs in March and June next year. Bath has had the same amount of time as Bristol to come up with a plan.
But Bristol City Council abandoned the plan it proposed last summer. Instead of accelerating action to protect people’s health, it has further dithered and delayed.
Bristol’s latest plan delays action and falls short
Most recently, the Council announced that it is now working to avoid plans for a CAZ altogether in favour of alternative “fast track” measures – including extra cycle lanes, road closures and improvements to public transport.
While these measures are important to build a better city, we don’t know if – on their own – they can adequately tackle the toxic levels of pollution in the city. The Council has so far not provided any evidence to show their impact in the long term. In contrast, we already know that a CAZ could lead to immediate and lasting improvements to air quality in the city.
Whilst the Council is currently re-consulting on proposals for a revised CAZ, it is also putting its implementation on hold until October 2021 while it tries out these alternative measures. Given the threat to human health caused by air pollution in the city, our view is that the Council should be doing everything they can as quickly as possible. Continuing to drag their feet on getting a CAZ up and running simply delays potentially life-saving action on pollution still further.