UK Edition
More cities could charge polluting diesel vehicles
Charges on polluting vehicles entering town and city centres could be introduced in dozens of areas across the UK under plans to help improve air quality.
Ministers have already announced plans to impose "clean air zones" in five UK cities to help tackle dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide, but have now confirmed that other areas will be encouraged to follow suit.
MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee on Wednesday call for "new clean air zones in dozens of English towns and cities to cut the risk of cardiac, respiratory and other diseases".
In response, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that other areas had the power to introduce charges on polluting vehicles and that it had "received interest from other cities to put in place a clean air zone".
The five clean air zones proposed by the Government in a strategy last year will be imposed in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020 and will see charges for old diesel lorries, vans and taxis.
But ministers have also vowed to "work with other cities that wanted to be more 'ambitious' in cutting emissions below legal levels", a report by the Efra committee says.
Defra said that local authorities could also opt to charge private car drivers if they so wished, although this would not be ordered by the Government.
Campaign group ClientEarth, which prompted the Government strategy on air quality via a legal challenge, has already dismissed the plans for five clean air zones as inadequate and demanded they be introduced in more areas.
Alan Andrews, a lawyer at the group, said: "The committee is right to call for more clean air zones. We need a national network of these, alongside other measures that can be taken urgently. This is a public health crisis, it’s time for the government to act in the interests of our health."
The Efra committee report also called for a scrappage scheme for old diesel cars to encourage drivers to trade them in for more expensive low-emission alternatives.
Neil Parish MP, the committee chairman, said: "More action is needed if we are to get older, more polluting diesel vehicles off the road quickly. People need more of an incentive to purchase the more expensive low-emission vehicles: we want the Government to start planning now to introduce at the next Budget a scrappage scheme targeted at cars and vans ten years or more old."
The Efra committee also added to pressure for Volkswagen to pay compensation over the use of defeat devices, saying the company should do so where it had been “proven to have misled customers”.
A spokesman for Defra said: "Tackling air quality is a priority for this government and our plans set out how we will achieve this through continued investment in clean technologies and by encouraging the uptake of low emission vehicles.
"Our plans also set out a new programme of Clean Air Zones in five cities, which will target the most polluting vehicles in air quality hotspots.
"Cities already have powers to introduce Clean Air Zones and later this year we will consult on a framework to ensure a consistent, co-ordinated approach across the UK that will deliver a real improvement in air quality."
Asked whether it planned to introduce a diesel scrappage schemes, a government spokesman said the plans for clean air zones as well as new real driving emissions tests and investment in greener transport would help improve air quality.