Portsmouth clean air plans will 'shunt' pollution

A planned city clean air zone will "shunt" pollution elsewhere instead of reducing it, a ferry operator has claimed.

Portsmouth City Council plans to charge taxis, lorries and coaches without the latest efficient engines up to £50 a day to enter part of the city.

Wightlink said firms would chose to drive the extra miles to Southampton in order to travel to the Isle of Wight.

The city council said the zone was "critical" to achieving cleaner air.

The proposed clean air zone, aimed at reducing carbon dioxide levels, was initially going to cover all of the Portsea Island area but it was scaled back to just the western side, excluding the council-owned Portsmouth International Port.

Keith Greenfield, chief executive of Wightlink, said the clean air zone plans would hit haulage firms

Under the plans, owners of older vehicles registered before 2006 or diesel vehicles registered before 2015 would be charged to drive into the zone.

Privately-owned cars and motorbikes would not be affected.

Keith Greenfield, chief executive of Wightlink, said: "If lorries, coaches and buses go a longer route to and from the Isle of Wight, guess what, there will be more emissions.

"All we're going to do is shunt the problem over to Southampton and create more emissions along the way as the route will be longer."

Dave Ashmore, council cabinet member for environment and climate change, said modelling showed there would be "very little re-routing".

"The reason it's being done - air quality, cutting pollution and going carbon neutral - are all things we need to pursue. We're committed to going carbon neutral by 2030 so its about people's health."

Southampton dropped plans to charge high-polluting vehicles entering the city at the start of last year.