Greater Manchester clean air zone could launch in May 2022

Greater Manchester has approved plans for a clean air zone (CAZ) scheme under which high-polluting commercial and passenger vehicles will be charged to drive through the city.

High-polluting heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches will be charged £60 a day; vans, £10; and taxi and private hire vehicles, £7.50 to drive within the zone. Failure to pay will result in a £120 fine in addition to the daily charge. Private cars will be exempt. The scheme is expected to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) next week and is expected to launch on 30 May 2022.

The scope of the plans immediately came under fire after they were announced on Monday. Andrea Lee, clean air campaigner at environmental law charity ClientEarth, said: “The proposed zone remains blind to the biggest source of air pollution in the region: private cars.

“With cities like London and Birmingham already taking action to tackle all the most polluting vehicles, Greater Manchester’s plan pales in comparison– and people’s health will continue to suffer.”

Andy Burnham, the regional mayor, said: “Greater Manchester … are leading a green revolution, backed with over £120m that we’ve secured to hand over to businesses to support making their vehicles compliant.

“It’s the poorest kids in the poorest communities that have to breathe in the most polluted air. Every year in Greater Manchester, over 1,000 deaths have air pollution as a contributory cause. It’s just not something we should ignore any more. ”

The government has ordered all 10 Greater Manchester councils to introduce a clean air zone by 2024. Illegally high levels of roadside air pollution have been recorded in all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester.

Birmingham’s equivalent CAZ scheme, launched this month, has begun issuing daily charges to high-polluting cars, taxis and vans after a two-week delay to give motorists “time to adjust”.

Applications for funds to help Greater Manchester businesses upgrade to cleaner, compliant vehicles are due to open in November.

“As a result of the funding package that we have secured, we are now able to give people more time to change their vehicle to a non-polluting compliant one,” Burnham said. “We’re also putting forward more options for people in terms of how they make the change, including retrofitting their vehicles.”

The CAZ is a pillar of plans for an integrated “Bee Network” across Greater Manchester. Burnham confirmed that the bike-share company Beryl would be responsible for the city’s cycle hire scheme, which will also form part of the network.

There will be 1,500 bikes and e-bikes at more than 200 cycle hire docking stations across Manchester, Trafford and Salford by mid-2022.

Chris Boardman, former Olympic cyclist and Greater Manchester’s transport commissioner, said: “Today is a major milestone for the city-region: not only do we have a solid plan to make vehicles on our roads cleaner, we’ll soon be bringing cycle hire to our streets, providing a healthy, convenient, non-polluting transport option for tens of thousands of people.”