Clean air plan 'a let down' - campaigners

Campaigners said UK air quality limits do not go far enough

A plan to cut pollution to within legal limits in Greater Manchester by using cleaner transport "does not go far enough", air quality campaigners have said.

The government has agreed to fund mayor Andy Burnham's £68m investment in zero and low-emissions buses and taxis as an alternative to charging drivers under an formalised Clean Air Zone.

But local campaigners Mums for Lungs both said the long-awaited plan "lacks ambition" in an area that has one of the most "consistently high" annual mean levels of nitrogen dioxide in England.

Mr Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester "clean air campaigners should be celebrating this with us" and investing in public transport was a better way to get clean air than charging drivers.

Liz Godfrey from the Mums for Lungs group said it was "unbelievable" that children in the region were not going to be better protected.

Ministers gave their backing to the region's approach to cutting nitrogen dioxide, a gas harmful gas emitted by petrol or diesel cars, to within legal limits by 2026.

Local authorities in Greater Manchester estimate air pollution contributes to at least 1,200 early deaths in the region each year.

'Disappointing'

Maddy Dawe of charity Asthma + Lung UK said the plan was a "good first step, but as it stands it still does not go far enough".

She said the UK's legal air pollution limit target were still "far above" internationally recognised guidelines set by the World Health Organization.

These need to met to protect people's health, particularly those with lung conditions, she said.

Ms Dawe said Greater Manchester has had "the highest rate of air pollution of any region in the UK for two years", pointing to air quality compliance data from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

Ms Godfrey, the Manchester coordinator of Mums For Lungs, said the group was "really disappointing" the government had backed the plan.

She echoed concerns UK air pollution limits were "no longer an acceptable target" and said the region must aspire to the WHO standard.