Clean Air Zone delay slammed

The Green Party’s only MP has expressed her disappointment over further delays to the implementation of Bristol’s Clear Air Zone.

Caroline Lucas joined Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party and councillor for Clifton Down, who is campaigning to be Bristol’s first Green MP at the next General Election.

Lucas said: “It’s quite something to see the mayor sign a letter calling for tougher action on air pollution just days after he has delayed the launch of Bristol’s Clean Air Zone yet again.

“Nobody would accept six years of failure to act if polluted tap water was leading to hundreds of deaths per year – and quite rightly.”

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Read more: Marvin Rees says the way Carla Denyer does politics is ‘demoralising’

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Denyer added: “This isn’t your typical politicians ‘dither and delay’, it has terrible, real-life consequences.

“Estimates are that 300 lives are cut short every year in Bristol due to this city’s toxic air quality – and some of the city’s poorer areas are the most affected, with as many as 10 per cent of deaths linked to air pollution.

“While it is encouraging that the mayor is signing up to targets to clean up our air by 2030, a pledge does not make the air clean.

“If the administration is taking this new air quality commitment seriously we expect to see urgent action to achieve it and a change in direction on transport. Without firm action this is just more hot air.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas (left) and co-leader Carla Denyer (right) – photo: Green Party

Marvin Rees revealed the latest setback during a press briefing on June 8, saying the council is currently seeking clarification on what the implications will be for long-awaited plans to tackle the city’s toxic air pollution.

The mayor said the change in regulations has resulted in one of the suppliers tasked with implementing the CAZ changing its work programme, potentially causing “some issues” with the process.

He added: “Physically and socially, we’ve done what we can as a local authority, but we need the government to come through now.”

A spokesperson for the mayor said that Denyer and Lucas’ intervention is an attempt “to secure cheap headlines to service a political campaign”.

The spokesperson said: “Whereas they may once have put the environment first, the Green Party has become a political party that ignores the complexities of the actual world and instead push political “calls” and catchphrases in the name of political point scoring.

“We have worked closely with government and their Joint Air Quality Unit to get Bristol’s clean air zone fit for purpose. If we had rushed in like the Green party called for, many of our more disadvantaged citizens would have been hit hard.

“They would be paying more and we would not have secured the £42m we now have to help companies get cleaner, and help business and individuals change their vehicle travel habits. As we have publicised the clean air zone, so people’s behaviours have already changed and now three of every four cars are already compliant.

“The start date may change but the compliance dates stay the same and we remain on track to reach compliance in 2023 – a date we brought down from 2027. Both Caroline Lucas and Carla Denyer are fond of saying ‘all it takes is political will’, as if the world we live in bends to our will.

“That’s their pathway to claiming no one but themselves care. If they were ever in power, they would discover you have to take people with you which means supporting them – the most vulnerable in particular – through change.

“They would discover you also need adequate government funding and infrastructure to deliver something as complex as the clean air zone. And government infrastructure has been held back.

“We continue to work towards a cleaner Bristol and the mayor has rightly called for more powers and a stronger approach to other pollutants such as wood burners and machinery.

“We remain open to working with people whose commitment to tackling our climate and ecological emergencies are held alongside an understanding of the need for a just transition; have an understanding of the scale of finance needed to enable them all; and who put building the pro-environment alliances the world needs ahead of the temptation to secure cheap headlines to service a political campaign.”

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Read more: November 2022 now likely start date for Bristol’s clean air zone

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Criticism of Rees over delays to the Clean Air Zone come at the same time as Green Party councillor for Windmill Hill, Ed Plowden, has tabled a motion to July’s full council meeting at City Hall regarding the decision of the mayor’s office to exclude local democracy reporters from Rees’ fortnightly press conferences.

Plowden said: “This disgraceful action is particularly concerning, given that the council’s publicly funded press office is supporting this behaviour, when its job is to serve the city and people of Bristol, not to support partisan politics or prop up the fragile ego of a single politician.

“I have tabled a motion calling on the council’s legal department to examine the role of the council’s press office in light of this situation.

“This action brings the city into disrepute and is reflective of a model of leadership that the city has rejected.

“Attempting to hide from accountability is weak leadership. Attacking the person asking the questions is part of a political playbook that we have seen too much of in Bristol and across the world.

“Along with Carla Denyer, members of the public and even NHS doctors, I too have been personally attacked and belittled as a tactic to avoid answering probing questions.

“I am looking forward to a new era of politics in Bristol now that the public have rejected the mayoral model. I call on the mayor to reflect and summon the strength to admit he made the wrong call and reverse this decision.”

Main photo: Joanna Booth

Read more: Marvin Rees scolds youngest councillor for asking ‘disappointing’ question

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