IF YOU DRIVE AN OLDER CAR YOU COULD BE BANNED FROM DRIVING INTO MANCHESTER IF PLANS GO AHEAD

Back in 2001 good old Gordon Brown dangled the magical incentive carrot before the faces of the people.

Diesel is cheaper to run, gets you better millage and what's more it is also better for the polar bears, is what we were being told at the time. Gordon was struggling to come up with a plant to cut emissions that were agreed upon several years earlier at Kyoto in Japan.

A protocol agreed upon by the UK in 1997 which would require all signatory counties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a) global warming exists and (b) human-made CO2 emissions have caused it. All of which was to come into force in 2005.

Pre 2001 there were around 3.45 million diesel vehicles plodding up and down the roads of Britain, a figure that since then has come to more than double to over a staggering 8.1 million by latest figures.

Scroll forward 16 years and now It is comes as quite a shock to motorists to hear Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin warning those people that followed government advice, that we face a hike in taxes designed to punish us for doing what we were told was the right thing to do.

It seems that diesel is not the clean wonder fuel we were told it was, yes it has lower carbon (CO2) emissions, but mile for mile diesel cars pump out far more micro particles as well as dangerous levels of (NOx) Nitrogen Oxides which not only contribute to higher atmospheric temperatures but also cause over 29,000 premature deaths in Britain that are attributed to air pollution.

Effectively many people were sold cars dirty polluting cars in good faith based upon what at best can be called misinformation.

Clean Air Charges

Back in 2016 the then candidate for Metro Mayor Andy Burnham ruled out a congestion charge, stating that it would be unfair to levy a tax on people with no public transport alternative.

Not long after becoming elected Mayor plans were being drawn up for a 'Clean Air' charge which at the time we were told would not affect car drivers and instead focus on those nasty polluting diesel buses, taxis and lorries churning out noxious gases into the atmosphere. 

Salford along with the rest of Greater Manchester gave a resounding NO back in 2008 when asked in a referendum if they wanted to see a congestion charge brought in across the region but this was different - we were told this was not a congestion charge but instead a 'clean air charge'.

We were also expressly told that private car drivers would not be affected and that there were no plans to charge motorists but it would appear that stance is now being rolled back as Manchester City Council have agreed to look at charging drivers of older vehicles to access the city centre in a similar way as they are within London's clean air zone.

This would mean that drivers of older vehicles would be excluded from entering the area within the Manchester/Salford inner ring road.

The proposal was unanimously supported by Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors after being put forward by councillor Marcus Johns alongside his colleague Jon-Connor Lyons.

There was no mention as to how this would be achieved but Mayor Burnham has already submitted plans to government in order to levy charges on older polluting heavy goods vehicles, taxis and buses across areas of Greater Manchester. If funding is granted then the current preferred option is the introduction of a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) across the whole of Greater Manchester from 2021, to discourage the most polluting buses, HGVs, taxis, private hire vehicles and LGVs from travelling within the Greater Manchester boundary

These plans make no mention of private vehicles nor do they contain reference to any specific city centre zone.

Some have accused Manchester Council of attempting to slip in a congestion charge in the guise of a clean air tax by the back-door. The council in York has recently been considering a plan to block ALL cars from entering its City Centre and there are genuine concerns that in time that will also be adopted in Manchester.

Regardless, air quality across the region is dangerously low and road transport is responsible for 80% of the roadside nitrogen dioxide with the greatest contribution coming from diesel vehicles, something clearly has to be done to combat the rises in particulates in the air we breathe. 

Public Health England has estimated that poor air quality is a contributor to an equivalent on 1,200 deaths a year in Greater Manchester alone and plays a part in breathing illnesses, heart disease, stroke and even some cancers.

Manchester Council will now take these latest proposals under consideration before deciding the outcome later this year.

For information on GM's current clean air plan, look HERE