The Government have now released their new air quality plans, and local law firm ClientEarth, who forced them to finally deliver the plans, are not impressed. Their website carries the following statement:

Reacting to today’s air quality plans from the UK Government, ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: “We are continuing to study the government’s latest air quality plan, but on the face of it it looks much weaker than we had hoped for. The court ordered the government to take this public health issue seriously and while the government says that pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health, we will still be faced with illegal air quality for years to come under these proposals.

“There needs to be a national network of clean air zones which prevent the most polluting vehicles from entering the most illegally polluted streets in our towns and cities. We fail to see how the non-charging clean air zones, proposed by the government, will be effective if they don’t persuade motorists to stay out of those areas. The government seems to be passing the buck to local authorities rather than taking responsibility for this public health emergency.

“The government has also failed to commit to a diesel scrappage scheme and this is a crucial element of the range of measures needed to persuade motorists to move to cleaner vehicles. We will be analysing all the technical details in these documents. We are committed to ensuring the government protects our health and tackles illegal pollution as soon as possible.”

ClientEarth's website also states "This news story will be updated shortly as we analyse the technical details in the plans."

See www.clientearth.org