Agenda item

To consider a report seeking approval to submit a Full Business Case for the Tyneside Air Quality Plan that is the proposed option for delivering compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in the shortest possible time.

Cabinet considered a report which sought approval to submit a Full Business Case for the Tyneside Air Quality Plan that was the proposed option for delivering compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in the shortest possible time.

The Authority, along with Newcastle and Gateshead councils, had been issued with a legal direction in 2017 by Government with an instruction to prepare a plan that would address forecast air quality exceedance locations within the shortest time. In response, the three authorities had carried out a joint study to identify what measures were needed to address this issue and comply with the legal directive,

The three authorities had undertaken a public engagement exercise between March and May 2019 on two options, both of which would apply charges to all vehicles.  The consultation had attracted over 19,000 responses from individuals, businesses, community groups and voluntary organisations.  Further consultation had then been carried out in October and November 2019 on a revised option which excluded charging private vehicles, and this formed the basis of the Final Tyneside Air Quality Plan which was intended to be submitted to Government.      

The consultation had confirmed that residents and representative groups wanted cleaner air action, but most were concerned about the potential impacts of an immediate move to charging all vehicle types over a wide geographic area.

The Final Tyneside Air Quality Plan reflected those concerns and proposed the introduction of a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) “Type C” where all non-compliant, non-private vehicles would pay a daily charge for entering the Clean Air Zone. The area in which the charge would be applied was shown in Appendix 1 to the report and was essentially Newcastle City Centre between St James’ Boulevard and the Central Motorway covering routes to all 3 bridges: the Tyne bridge, the Swing bridge and the Redheugh bridge. The charge would be between £12.50 (Taxi and LGV) and £50 (Bus and HGV) depending on the vehicle type.  The Clean Air Zone would generate revenue which, once operational costs were covered, may produce a surplus.  Any surplus generated would be ring-fenced to deliver transport measures that improved air quality. 

Alongside the submission of the Final Tyneside Air Quality Plan Business Case was a bid for Clean Air Fund monies to help mitigate the negative financial impacts upon those user groups subject to the Clean Air Zone charge. The bid included loans for taxi and LGV drivers to upgrade vehicles, retrofitting grants for buses, HGVs and coaches, and also funding for a large package of behavioural change measures aimed at improving air quality.

Whilst the report primarily focussed on air quality issues in Newcastle City Centre, it was an extremely important issue for all local authorities to address.

North Tyneside would not have any roads covered by the Clean Air Zone, but it would experience some of the traffic redistribution impacts of the measures implemented in Newcastle. Furthermore, more journeys travelling through the Clean Air Zone originated in North Tyneside compared to any other part of the region and so the Authority had a role to play in influencing these trips to move to more sustainable modes of transport.

North Tyneside Council remained firmly committed to providing a clean, green, healthy, attractive and sustainable environment, a key feature of the Our North Tyneside Plan.  In recent years, the Authority had already invested over £150m in major highway improvements which provided greater opportunities for sustainable travel and further significant improvements were anticipated, such as the introduction of new Metro fleet carriages by 2023; pulling in resources from the Transforming Cities Fund which would see improvements to public transport, walking and cycling by 2023 and the addition of a new lane on the A1 Western Bypass north of the Tyne in 2023.

It was noted that on the 8 January 2020 Newcastle City Council had approved the recommendations as set out in Section 1.2 of the report. Gateshead Council would consider the recommendations at its Council meeting on 26 January 2020.

Cabinet considered the following decision options: either to agree the recommendations as set out in paragraph 1.2 of the report, or alternatively to disagree with the proposals.

Resolved that (1) the response to the consultation conducted between October and November 2019 be noted;

(2) the contents of the proposed package, including the bid for funding for mitigation measures to the Clean Air Fund be noted; and

(3) the Full Business Case for the Tyneside Air Quality Plan as the proposed option for delivering compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in the shortest possible time, in adherence to the Authority’s obligations under the Environment Act 1995 (Feasibility Study for Nitrogen Dioxide Compliance) Air Quality Direction 2017 and the Environment Act 1995 (Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Council) and Air Quality Direction 2019, be approved.

(Reasons for decision: To allow progress towards satisfying the legal direction issued by the Government requiring local authorities to create plans to address air quality issues on specific local roads.)