Greater Manchester’s plans for a Clean Air Zone are being put back for a year because the Covid-19 crisis has made it impossible to consult businesses.
Making the announcement during yesterday’s GM Covid 19 Press Conference Cllr Andrew Western leader of Trafford Council said that despite the delay until 2022 he still expected everything to be in place by the original date two years later.
The plan is to discourage the most polluting buses, HGVs, taxis, private hire vehicles and LGVs from travelling within the Greater Manchester boundary with incentives for companies to change to a more cleaner mode of transportation
Cllr Western said that one of the principal benefits of the current crisis was the drop in air pollution particularly of Nitrogen Dioxide in the air and he hoped that part of the region’s plan to build back better would see these levels continue to improve.
Public Health England estimate that poor air quality contributes to an equivalent on 1,200 deaths a year in Greater Manchester, plays a part in breathing illnesses, heart disease, stroke and even some cancers. Poor air quality particularly affects the vulnerable such as the elderly, sick, poor and children.
