Labour government would back Ashbourne clean air charging zone, if public support it

A Labour Government would likely back an Ashbourne clean air charging zone, if it had public support, leader Keir Starmer has indicated. Derbyshire Dales District Council is currently running a public consultation on ways to improve air quality in Ashbourne and one option is a clean air charging zone.

The idea, put forward in February by Liberal Democrat councillor David Hughes, and backed by all political groups on the council, was for a zone to target more pollutant HGVs, diesel commercial vehicles and taxis, with exemptions for residents and more environmentally-friendly vehicles. These details are confirmed in the ongoing district council consultation questionnaire.

Any clean air zone would require the involvement of Derbyshire County Council, whose leaders are ardently opposed to the idea, and final sign-off from central Government. With a General Election on the horizon, when asked if a Labour government would approve such a scheme, the party’s leader Keir Starmer told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I don’t know the details of that clean air zone and I don’t know whether it would need national approval, I doubt it, but I don’t know off the top of my head.

Read more: Ashbourne residents asked if they support clean air zone or 20mph limits in bid to cut pollution

“What is important in these consultations is that whatever the scheme or the zone they are only going to work if we can bring local people with us and that is why consultations are hugely important. We do have an air quality problem in this country that we do need to address but as for the particular zones I am a big fan of public consultation and then reflecting on what comes back, rather than ignoring it.”

If approved it would be the smallest clean air charging zone in England, by some margin, focussing on the Buxton Road hill area of the town centre – which has troubling levels of air pollution requiring legally-mandated intervention regarding the public health hazard. The Liberal Democrats, who had proposed the clean air zone, are now the largest party on the district council after this month’s local elections and could lead the way on the very proposal they put forward.

Cllr Hughes, who has been re-elected, had said the proposed scheme would charge diesel commercial vehicles and taxis that are not Euro 6 compliant (the latest restrictions for cleaner vehicles, emitting lower levels of nitrogen dioxide), with an exemption for registered keepers within the Ashbourne civil parish. There are currently six clean air charging zones in England in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside (Newcastle and Gateshead), with a zone in Greater Manchester under review.

He said a clean air charging zone would “encourage owners of non-compliant vehicles to invest in newer, cleaner vehicles” with a “polluter pays” principle, hitting those who passed through Ashbourne “for transit” instead of those “providing economic benefit for the town”. Cllr Hughes said: “The principal objection appears to be that such zones have only been implemented in large cities, Bath being perhaps the smallest to implement one. Ashbourne is of course much smaller.

“Nevertheless, its residents are living every day with the pollution caused by through traffic. This traffic does not benefit Ashbourne’s economy but is surely having an effect on residents’ health. As such, a resident in Ashbourne should have the same right to clean air as a resident of, say, Sheffield. Therefore, size shouldn’t matter.”

Cllr O’Brien, an independent councillor, who has also been re-elected, had said just under half of the UK’s HGVs were Euro 6 compliant and that the Euro 6 restrictions reduced emissions by 50 per cent. He said 95 per cent of HGV operators complied with Euro 6 in order to avoid paying clean air zone charges.

Cllr O’Brien had said: “I don’t want to put a price on the cost of ensuring that every child in Ashbourne has the chance to lead a full and healthy life. The Government has a Clean Air Grant scheme, which provides funding for effective and practical measures to reduce air pollution, of which a clean air zone in Ashbourne is one.

“It is the responsibility of this council, this committee and every one of us here this evening to do whatever is necessary to remove the scourge of this pollution from the lives of the residents of Ashbourne.” Meanwhile, Cllr Barry Lewis, county council leader, had said: “As we are the highways authority for Derbyshire, we would expect Derbyshire Dales District Council to have consulted us before making public any proposals on HGV charging zones in Ashbourne.

“It is disappointing they have not done so. They are well aware that any legal decisions on this matter are for the county council to take under national legislation. Until now we had been working positively with the district council on a range of pragmatic measures to improve air quality in Ashbourne.

“Ultimately the long-term solution is to deliver the Ashbourne relief road – a clear county council commitment.” Cllr Simon Spencer, deputy county council leader, had said: “I think it’s unfortunate we’ve had these other issues thrown in the melting pot by an authority that has no control over the outcome of their proposals whatsoever.

“There’s an awful lot of questions to be asked at this moment in time about the district council’s processes, and the way they’ve gone about this, and that is unprofessional in my opinion.”

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