Bradford City Council has admitted that it will not meet a legal requirement to tackle air pollution as quickly as possible, having successfully ‘pushed back’ against government pressure to comply with the law.

The city’s delayed Clean Air Zone has gone live - though the city council fought successfully to water it down to the point where just 4% of vehicles will be charged.

Vehicles that do not meet the required emission standards will be subject to a daily charge to drive into the zone, apart from passenger cars, motorbikes and vehicles awarded an exemption, including local businesses.

A council spokesperson told Transport Network that the council had ‘worked to design a Clean Air Plan that delivers the primary objective set by Government to achieve compliance with air quality limit value for nitrogen dioxide in the shortest time possible’.

Despite this, the spokesperson added: ‘The legal requirement would be met quicker by charging passengers cars but Bradford pushed back on this as there would be a negative impact on the most deprived families in the district.’

Transport Network approached environment Department Defra for an explanation as to why it allowed Bradford to meet the legal limits later that ‘in the shortest time possible’ but received no response.

Oliver Lord, UK head of the Clean Cities Campaign, said city leaders who take ‘tough decisions’ to deliver Clean Air Zones should be applauded but said that it was ‘unfortunate’ that Bradford had excluded polluting cars, adding that this was ‘part of a broader issue that Clean Air Zones would be more robust and effective with sufficient support from the Government’.

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