Stoke-on-Trent considering clean air zone plans

Council leader Abi Brown said ideally it would like a clean air zone that did not affect private vehicles

Some vehicles may be charged up to about £35 a day to use a road under proposals to improve air quality, Stoke-on-Trent City Council said.

In Birmingham's new Clean Air Zone, high-polluting cars will face a daily fee of £8 and coaches and lorries £50.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is considering whether a similar zone could be established on Victoria Road, in Fenton.

Leader Abi Brown estimated a possible daily charge of between £9 and £35.

Under such an initiative, charges would apply to the most polluting vehicles.

The local authority said it would not want that scheme to include private cars, but the government said it might have to, if levels were not brought down sufficiently.

It told the council in 2018 that it needed to do something about air pollution on that particular road.

Birmingham's Clean Air Zone was launched last week, with drivers of high-polluting cars face a daily fee of £8 from later this month

Conservative Ms Brown said the council was "really pleased" to be told a fortnight ago that the government would "allow us a little bit longer to continue to look at whether a clean air zone would be possible".

Speaking on BBC Politics Midlands, she said: "Ideally what we would like is one that doesn't actually impact on private vehicles.

"So in that case the only vehicles it would impact on would be those older bigger commercial vehicles."

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The leader said the local authority looked at a so-called bus gate, but she thought the reality of that would mean in effect "only 12 vehicles [buses] would be able to go through" daily.

She added: "It would absolutely route the traffic elsewhere, so we've pushed hard on the government... to say please can we look at other options?"

Asked on the BBC programme if we were looking at similar charging to Birmingham, £8 for vans and £50 for lorries, Ms Brown said: "We're looking at a lesser charge than that.

"I think we're looking in the region of around £9.... upwards to about £35 per day."

Drivers will not be charged for entering Birmingham's new Clean Air Zone for the first two weeks, the city council there announced on Tuesday.