Nottingham City Council has written to the Government to call for a local scrappage scheme to help people turn away from high-polluting cars.
The call is part of efforts to clean up the city’s air quality, which has been listed as among the worst in the country.
In January, Nottingham City Council received £400,000 to tackle air quality after becoming one of several UK towns and cities designated a ‘Clean Air Zone’ to help improve conditions.
And the authority has asked the Government to consider a programme which would offer drivers of high-polluting vehicles, such as diesel cars, compensation to scrap or modify their cars.
A spokesman for Nottingham City Council told Notts TV: “A scrappage scheme could be locally targeted and help to alleviate the cost burden of upgrading vehicles.
“Such a scheme would also help to accelerate the fleet change towards less polluting vehicles, thereby improving health at a faster rate.”
On Friday, the Government plans to publish a new air quality strategy after losing a case against environmental campaigners for breaching EU emissions standards.
A proposal was rejected by the High Court last week to delay the publication of the strategy until after the June 8 General Election.
And the Government could grant the council’s request for a scrappage scheme on Friday, the Telegraph reports.
Clean Air Zones allow councils to bring in a range of measures to cut pollution – including bringing in a zone-based charge for drivers of high-polluting vehicles – but the Government has urged cities to look at all other alternatives first before implementing this.
Last May the World Health Organisation identified Nottingham’s air pollution levels as being ‘harmful’ and among the worst in the UK, with high traffic and congestion levels in the city thought to be the main cause.
Nottingham City Council say they are already working on many new “innovative and exciting projects” to help improve Nottingham’s air quality.
Some of these projects include the Eco Expressway through Colwick, which plans to provide priority travel ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) and the Cycle Ambition programme, which aims to develop better connecting cycle routes across the city.
The council confirmed it could also charge high-polluting vehicles in the Clean Air Zone but does not know how much or what vehicles yet.
They said: “Since the majority of Nitrogen Dioxide is produced by vehicular traffic the main measure within a Clean Air Zone will be to charge a fee for the most polluting types of vehicles to enter the zone.
“It is understood that DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Areas) will set an upper and lower limit for the Clean Air Zone charge. Nottingham City Council has not yet been informed what the level of the charge is likely to be.”
According to the Telegraph that charge could be up to £25 a day to enter Clean Air Zones in the six mandated cities.
The city council says it will look at the reports from Government before carrying out their own analysis to determine what the charges will be and what vehicles will be effected.
