News / Clean Air Zone
£12m to be spent developing Bristol’s Clean Air programme
Marvin Rees says that he remains “committed” to delivering clean air for Bristol, but that now is not an appropriate time to push forward plans for a Clean Air Zone.
A cabinet report recommends the approval to spend a further £12m of money from central government in order for Bristol to continue developing its Clean Air programme.
After several delays, Bristol City Council submitted their outline business case to Westminster in November 2019 with the potential now to reach government targets by 2023.
Rees said: “We understand the moral, environmental and legal imperative to achieve clean air compliance, and remain committed to delivering clean air for the city.
“However, this is not an appropriate time to make life more difficult for businesses or to engage with the business community and people of Bristol on how we develop appropriate mitigations to reduce the impacts a Clean Air Zone may have for them.”
Bristol’s mayor added that “improving air quality is a crucial challenge, for our future as a sustainable, resilient and inclusive city, but so is restarting our economy”.
He said: “Our economic prosperity and response to the Covid-19 crisis must put all people at the heart of what we do, enabling us to thrive as a city improving the well-being of all of our residents and businesses.
“We need to improve our air quality as quickly as possible and ensure we have a recovering economy, delivering inclusive growth and jobs for all Bristolians.”
Main photo by Martin Booth
Read more: Implementation of Bristol’s Clean Air Zone pushed back
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