Totterdown resident (and Chair of TRESA) Geoff, wrote to Mayor Marvin Rees about progress on Bristol’s Clean Air plans. Mayor Rees explained that a small number of roads are key to achieving compliance and the team are considering radical structural changes to achieve compliance as quickly as possible. This includes pedestrianisation of the old city, and closing Bristol Bridge and Baldwin Street to through traffic. Because of this, they are optimistic that the 2023 compliance date can be brought forward to the end of 2022.
Geoff’s email, and the response from the Mayor, are set out in full below.
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Dear Mayor Rees
I’m a council tax payer and live in Totterdown. We have two major commuter routes passing through our area and suffer the impacts of air pollution as do citizens across Bristol. It is a great concern that the proposed CAZ has been postponed indefinitely.
Before lockdown, Bristol’s air pollution was over twice the legal limit, far exceeding the World Health Organisation safe levels, especially for residents here in the vicinity of the Three Lamps junction at Wells Rd’/ Bath Rd.. Bristol’s air quality has exceeded legal limits for 26 years, but for the last 12 weeks of lockdown we have finally been able to experience legally compliant, breathable air. As lockdown eases, figures for June show that we are already back above the legal threshold.
Long-term exposure to air pollution causes around five premature deaths in Bristol each week. Toxic air contributes to health conditions including asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and lower IQ’s in children. Not only this, but exposure to air pollution increases our chances of being more severely affected by COVID-19.
Disadvantaged communities suffer the greatest consequences of air pollution whilst contributing the least to it. In a recent study, Lawrence Hill stood out as an area having the highest Black and minority ethnic population in the city and some of the highest levels of deprivation, as well as suffering from some of the worst air pollution in Bristol. 11% of deaths in Lawrence Hill (of people over 25) can be attributed to air pollution and 60% more people die from respiratory illness in Lawrence Hill, compared to the rest of Bristol.
Back in 2019, you said that “We have a moral, ecological and legal duty to clean up the air we breathe. This research (by Kings College, London) emphasises how vital it is that we act quickly to improve health and save lives in Bristol.” However, despite tabling plans for a Clean Air Zone, the council have now pushed these back, prioritising business over health. Both central government and Client Earth have threatened legal action against the Bristol City Council over its failure to meet clean air targets.
Urgently implementing a well-planned CAZ is an important step towards cleaning up Bristol’s dirty air, but it is not a silver bullet and will not work in isolation. Major investment is needed in infrastructure for walking and cycling across the city. Bristol’s public transport network needs to be expanded; services need to be more frequent, reliable and considerably cheaper. The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has acknowledged that “as we look to the future, we must build a better country with greener travel habits, cleaner air and healthier communities”. The Council needs to provide real alternatives to enable people to make positive choices and avoid using a car.
As we begin the recovery from COVID-19, we have a chance to do things differently. We can restart the economy without returning to deadly levels of pollution. We can keep our air clean and our city green and safe, while protecting jobs and businesses, investing in public transport and taking action to tackle the climate emergency.
The tragedy of the pandemic has shown us that we can unite – both locally and globally – to rapidly change our behaviours for the greater good. We know we can make dramatic and effective changes to protect the health of our most vulnerable communities. Bristol City Council is legally responsible for clean air compliance and must act now to make Bristol’s air quality permanently compliant from April 2021.
Best wishes
Geoff Allan
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Dear Geoff,
Thank you for getting in touch.
There has never been a delay to our compliance on clean air.
Our original compliance date was 2025, agreed with government with the submission of the outline business case in November last year. This was predicated on the start of the scheme in April 2021. That start date has always been the case, and has never slipped.
In April 2020, we announced that that as we developed our full business case through revised modelling and a more innovative approach, we had brought that estimated compliance date to early 2023.
This acceleration is delivered through a hybrid model – combining a medium area CAZ C (which charges non-compliant commercial vehicles) and either a diesel ban (of private vehicles) or a small area CAZ D (which charges non-compliant private vehicles).
As we have always acknowledged a CAZ is a very blunt instrument for dealing with pollution. A charging zone is often considered a “poor tax” – a tax on people with the oldest cars and the least ability to upgrade. We must protect the most economically deprived in our city, because while air quality contributes to early deaths, we must also challenge the biggest killer: poverty. These two health challenges must be tackled together and this drives our desire to not apply a simple charge without mitigation or acknowledgement of the impact of such a decision.
Taking into account the new working practices and changes to travel arrangements generated by the Covid 19 health pandemic, we are discussing a more radical solution with the government Join Air Quality Unit. This solution includes the management of through traffic out of the central areas, achieving air quality compliance more quickly.
We have started to re-imagine this solution by accelerating delivery of the pedestrianisation of the old city, and closing Bristol Bridge and Baldwin Street to through traffic.
A small number of roads are key to our inability to achieve clean air and we are re-assessing whether we can take more radical structural changes to these to achieve compliance as quickly as possible.
Because of this, we are optimistic that the 2023 compliance date can be brought down to the end of 2022.
Kind regards
Marvin Rees
Mayor of Bristol