Bradford CAZ: City's air cleanest since records began, says council

The Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was introduced to lower illegal levels of pollution

Bradford has recorded its lowest level of air pollution since records began, thanks to the introduction of the Clean Air Zone (CAZ), the council said.

It has been working on projects to improve air quality after recording illegally high levels of nitrous oxide (NO2) in 2018.

The CAZ means vehicles that do not meet emission standards are charged a daily fee of between £7 and £50.

Grants were made available to those wanting to upgrade their vehicles.

Bradford Council said it had been monitoring real-time air pollution levels since 1999.

A spokesman said, thanks to businesses and transport operators making their vehicles more eco-friendly, it had seen significant improvements in air quality.

He said following the 2020 Ministerial Direction to implement a Class C+ CAZ, the council had distributed grants worth £20,486,001 to residents and businesses.

Drivers of non-compliant vehicles face charges to enter the city centre

The UK legal limit for NO2 levels is 40 µg/m3 - the World Health Organisation recommended limit is 10 µg/m3.

Automatic monitoring of NO2 levels show that on Market Street in the city centre, levels dropped from 45 in 2021 to 39 in 2022.

Bradford Council said the non-compliant vehicle journey rate in the city centre had dropped from 3.6% of all journeys in summer 2022 to 1.5% at the end of July 2023.

This means that per month only 1.5% of approximately seven million vehicle journeys into the CAZ are chargeable.

Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: "We all have a moral, environmental and legal responsibility to make Bradford's air cleaner and improve the health of our residents and visitors.

"We want to thank businesses and transport partners who were using the grants available to upgrade vehicles in advance of the launch of the CAZ.

"It's good to see these measures translating into improvements in air quality."