City of York Council is looking for residents’ views on the possible introduction of a new Clean Air Zone in York’s city centre. The council is reviewing a number of ways to improve air quality in the city centre, and one of the options is to work with bus operators to apply a proposed Clean Air Zone to buses.
Cllr Tony Richardson, Conservative spokesperson for the environment, said: “ We know through York’s Third Air Quality Action Plan that local bus services make up three per cent of the traffic but 27 per cent of the main pollutants in York. On the other hand, we need to keep in mind that asking buses to bear an additional burden would have its costs to bus operators and ultimately to bus users..
“York’s buses play a major role in moving people around our city, so it’s important that the public give their views on these proposed changes through this survey to help the council take a balanced view of potential ways forward to improve air quality.”
The survey goes live today, Thursday 21 June at www.york.gov.uk/consultations.
To find out more about which bus services could be affected, or for more background on this proposal, visit: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=10195
What is the council already doing?
City of York Council already has several long term policies in place to manage traffic levels and reduce pollution. These aim to:
• Reducing the total number of vehicle trips - by encouraging walking, cycling and public transport use
• Reducing taxi emissions - by mandating emissions standards for taxis operators
• Increasing electric vehicle take up by providing electric vehicle charging points, converting some buses from diesel to electric and transferring goods from HGVs to bicycles or lower emission vehicles
• Limiting further pollution – by encouraging low emission developments
• Preventing unnecessary pollution by tackling vehicle idling
• Leading by example – by reducing pollution from council vehicles
The council has also worked with bus operators to secure grants for new electric Tour and Park & Ride buses.
Clean Air Zone Proposal
The council is proposing to introduce a Clean Air Zone (CAZ). This will require any individual bus operating on a public local bus service, into the Clean Air Zone, five or more times per day to be ultra low emission bus standard.
Ultra low emission buses (ULEBs) are those that have no exhaust emissions (e.g. electric buses) or have significantly reduced pollution emissions such as Euro 6 diesel buses, gas powered and electric hybrid buses.
The council will consider responses to this consultation and a further report will be presented to a meeting of the council’s Executive later in 2018.