Health harms of delaying Bristol’s clean air zone ‘not assessed in detail’

Bristol City Council did not assess the health harms of a delay to the clean air zone “in any detail”, it has emerged.

A top transport officer made the admission to scrutiny councillors this week.

It comes after city mayor Marvin Rees said the delay of around nine months, announced earlier this month, would “absolutely” not affect how soon Bristol would reach the Government’s clean air target.

The clean air zone, designed to curb traffic air pollution, will see older, more polluting vehicles – an estimated 75,000 a day – charged to enter a small area in the city centre.

Whitehall had ordered the zone to be brought in this October, but it will not start until next summer.

Chair of the overview and scrutiny management board, Green councillor Carla Denyer, asked if the council had estimated whether there was any “substantial harm to health” from the delay.

She said: “I understand that the compliance date won’t be affected but one would assume, I think, that if the start date is later, that there will still be people who are affected by that nine months less of having a clean air zone in place and I wondered if the council had made any assessment of that.”

The council’s strategic city transport service manager, Adam Crowther, replied: “No, we haven’t assessed that in any detail.”

But he said delaying the zone would mean “a bit of pollution…that wouldn’t have been there otherwise”.

Private petrol cars and private diesel cars will be charged £9 a day to enter the clean air zone when it comes into play – map: Bristol City Council

Pollution levels are expected to start falling before the clean air zone starts as people switch to cleaner vehicles, then drop sharply once it is introduced, he said.

Crowther said there has already been a “significant drop” in pollution in central Bristol, due to measures such as the closure of Bristol Bridge and Baldwin Street, the pedestrianisation of the Old City, and extra cycle lanes.

“Those sort of changes in the central area weren’t part of [the council’s outline CAZ plans submitted in November 2019], so there have been steps taken to, I suppose, mitigate any further delays by rapidly improving air quality in that central area,” he said.

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Read more: Bristol Bridge to reopen to cars weeks after being permanently closed to cars

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It has been estimated that 300 people die each year as a result of air pollution in Bristol.

The officer said there has been a “significant drop” in pollution in central Bristol, due to measures such as the closure of Bristol Bridge – photo by Martin Booth

The Government ordered the council to reduce the city’s toxic NO2 levels to within legal limits as quickly as possible in 2017.

Rees has said the latest delay is due to the Government needing more time to approve the council’s plans and its request for extra funding to help residents and businesses adjust to the scheme.

The exact implementation date will be decided after that, but the council has assured residents that the city is still on track to get toxic NO2 pollution levels down to within the legal limit by 2023.

Main photo by Martin Booth

Amanda Cameron is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Read more: Clean air zone delayed until summer 2022