With the busy Bath Road and Wells Road affecting life in Totterdown, TRESA is concerned about air quality in our area and we have been following the issue of a clean air zone for Bristol. Dr Therese Coffrey MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Environment, has now written to Mayor Marvin Rees expressing concern about delays in producing a final plan to deliver compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide. The content of the letter is reproduced below, followed by a link to the PDF.
Dear Mayor Rees,
As you are aware, your local authority received a ministerial direction on the 27 July 2017 requiring it to provide a final plan to deliver compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in the area for which the authority is responsible, in the shortest possible time by 31 December 2018. Since then the Joint Defra/DfT Air Quality Unit (JAQU) has worked closely with you giving you all necessary support and funding to ensure you can meet the deadlines to achieve compliance as soon as possible.
I am alarmed to hear that Bristol City Council have stated they will not provide your final plan, in the form of an Outline Business Case, until summer 2019, and would not share documents with JAQU before this date. This means you have unlawfully failed to comply with the Direction, and I am absolutely astonished at your delay in improving air quality for the people of Bristol as quickly as possible.
I urge you to accelerate your progress and work constructively with JAQU to share documents. Drawing on the project plan provided by your officials I require that a final plan, in the form of an Outline Business Case, is provided by 21st February 2019 that justifies the proposed preferred scheme to deliver compliance based on full and complete analyses including air quality, transport, and economic modelling as well as setting out the procurement, implementation route and affordability of the scheme;
Following acceptance of your final plan in the form of an Outline Business Case we will look to require you to implement your identified measures that includes the below next steps. This is to ensure implementation of the required measures starts by the end of 2019 and compliance to be delivered in the shortest possible time
- that all necessary public consultation on the preferred scheme commences by the 29th March 2019;
- a Full Business Case by 27th September 2019 that sets out detailed proposals for the scheme and sets out the commercial and contractual arrangements, affordability, and management arrangements to ensure successful delivery of the scheme can start.
I should like to make clear that any delay or non-compliance with these deadlines will result in my being forced to consider legal action against Bristol City Council which may include issuing proceedings without further notice.
I have advised my officials in the Joint Air Quality Unit that I wish to be kept closely informed of your progress and, as ever, they stand ready to help and provide support. I look forward to seeing your final plan in the very near future.
Given the public interest in improving air quality, I will be publishing this letter on gov.uk and copying it to the Mayor for the West of England.
Yours sincerely,
DR THERESE COFFEY MP
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