It CAN be done

Unlike Ipswich, many other places in the UK are embracing the changes necessary to deliver healthy air and improved quality of life. Read on to hear about London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Newcastle, York and many more.

LONDON

Talking about the ambitious plan to remove vehicles from large parts of central London, Sadiq Khan in May 2020 said “If we want to make transport in London safe, and keep London globally competitive, then we have no choice but to rapidly repurpose London’s streets for people. By ensuring our city’s recovery is green, we will also tackle our toxic air, which is vital to make sure we don’t replace one public health crisis with another.” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/15/large-areas-of-london-to-be-made-car-free-as-lockdown-eased

London is world leading in its environment strategy bringing together; air quality, green infrastructure, climate change mitigation and energy, waste, adapting to climate change and low carbon circular economy.   https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment

 London already boasts the world’s first ultra-low emission zone, and has scrappage fund to switch to cleaner vehicles, low emission buses, and a tree planting scheme.

London also informs its people with an environment newsletter providing regular updates and projects to get involved in.

BIRMINGHAM

Birmingham moved from denial in early 2019 to now embracing the changes necessary to protect its citizens health. It has introduced a clean air zone, and its transport plans will ban cars from the inner city, reduce and repurpose car parks into green spaces and apartments, stop cars from travelling ‘through’ Birmingham, re-route the A38 and use the tunnels only for public transport. Birmingham also plan to charge businesses for their car parking facilities.

Aiming to become carbon neutral in 2030, Birmingham’s transport policy plans to “Reconnect communities by prioritising people over cars and revitalise the city centre and local centres”.

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/transportplan https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20015/environment https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20076/pollution/1280/what_else_is_birmingham_doing_about_air_pollution

BRISTOL

In the business case for it Clean Air Plan https://www.cleanairforbristol.org  Bristol emphasises that it will comply with its statutory obligations to 1) Comply with the legal NO2 limits in the shortest period of time. 2) Reduces human exposure as quickly as possible. 3) Ensures that compliance is not just possible but likely. Obviously Ipswich is similarly obliged but not feeling it at the moment.

Bristol is introducing a clean air zone and banning diesels. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-50292596

NEWCASTLE

Announcing plans to make part of its city centre a car-free zone. Newcastle City Council say “The main causes of poor air quality in our city are from road transport and congestion which, in addition to costing the local economy hundreds of millions of pounds every year is giving rise to a significant public health issue that is comparable with smoking….while road traffic collisions account for around three fatalities in Newcastle in an average year, the impacts of poor air quality are responsible for hundreds of deaths.

YORK

York will introduce a Clean Air Zone where private cars will be banned and buses will be required to meet strict emission standards.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-50957470 https://www.york.gov.uk/AirQualityActionPlan

OTHERS

HM Government has mandated Leeds, Nottingham, Derby, Southampton, Bath and Oxford to implement Clean Air Zones. In addition Manchester and Sheffield are currently consulting on the issue.

Glasgow is the first city to introduce low emission zones. Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen are on course to implement low emission zones in 2020.

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