Government pledges to promote rail freight in King's Speech

News In Brief

City of Sheffield shows the way to clean air zone success with 21% drop in pollution

New data for the first year of Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) has revealed significant improvements in air quality in the city, with a 16% fall in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels within the zone and an even bigger drop of 21% across the whole city.

Introduced in June last year, the zone covers an area of the city roughly corresponding to the inner ringroad, and charges lorries, vans, taxis, buses and coaches each time they enter.  Private cars and motorbikes are exempt.

The council has said much of the success in reducing pollution is down to a series of schemes to compensate city residents for upgrading to cleaner vehicles, which they describe as “extremely successful”.

1,081 people received a grant to upgrade an older non-compliant vehicle, with 514 receiving retrospective funding for a vehicle they had already upgraded.

Every single location monitored within the zone showed a drop in pollution in 2023 compared to previous years despite volumes of traffic remaining broadly the same, suggesting that those driving the most polluting vehicles have been incentivised to switch to cleaner alternatives.

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