Air quality improvement after clean air zone introduced

Bradford is reporting significant improvements in air quality after introducing a clean air zone (CAZ) in the city.

The Bradford CAZ went live last year, with non-compliant vans and minibuses paying £9 per day to enter the zone, and HGVs having to stump up £50.

The emissions standards are Euro 6 (diesel) or Euro 4 (petrol).

The Bradford CAZ covers the area inside, and including, the Bradford outer ring road.

It also extends out along the Aire valley corridor, (Manningham Lane/Bradford Road and Canal Road area) to include Shipley and Saltaire.

Bradford Council said that thanks to businesses and fleets taking advantage of grants and investing in upgrading their vehicles it has seen significant improvements in air quality levels.

Monthly data from automatic monitoring sites in the CAZ, shows some of the lowest levels of NO2 recorded since records began in Bradford, this is despite traffic now returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, automatic monitoring sites have provided supplementary data showing that concentrations of NO2 have remained stable outside the CAZ and continue to be well within the legal limits set by Government.

The council says that it has seen more than 65 million journeys to date in the Bradford CAZ.

The non-compliant vehicle journey rate has dropped from 3.6% of all journeys in summer 2022 to just 1.5% at the end of July 2023.

It means that per month only 1.5% of approximately 7 million vehicle journeys into the CAZ are chargeable.

Compliant vans have increased from 50% to 70%, it said, while larger vehicles like articulated lorries have increased from around 80% compliant to 97%. The Bradford taxi fleet is 99% compliant.

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council said: “We want to thank businesses and transport partners who were using the grants available to upgrade vehicles in advance of the launch of the CAZ.

“It’s good to see these measures translating into improvements in air quality.”

She continued: “The number of non-compliant vehicles has fallen due to vehicles upgrades and changes to fleet composition, this improves air quality not just in Bradford but throughout West Yorkshire.

“Grants are still available to Bradford businesses and residents who wish to upgrade non-compliant vehicles along with specific grants to assist taxi drivers to switch to electric vehicles.” 

Bradford Council is using its CAZ revenue on projects to further improve air quality in the district.

The first major project is the Clean Air Schools Programme to support schools in reducing traffic emissions, this includes a £500,000 grant fund for schools and an anti-idling awareness raising campaign supported by enforcement measures.