GREEN MEANS GO
GREATER MANCHESTER REVISED CLEAN AIR PLAN INCLUDES £30.5M CLEAN TAXI FUND
On Tuesday 1 October, Greater Manchester’s Air Quality Adminis- tration Committee considered and approved updated Clean Air Plan proposals. The proposals will now be submitted to the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit. Government will then decide what the final Clean Air Plan will actually include. The next steps for the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan are dependent on feedback from the government. The nature and timescales of any further consultation on the Clean Air Plan proposals will be confirmed once
full formal
government feedback has been received. The revised Clean Air Plan includes a continued commitment to avoid charging drivers. The updated plan would see £86.7m invested in cleaner buses, Taxis/PHVs and measures to manage traffic flows on some roads in Manchester and Salford – using funding already awarded to Greater Manchester by govern- ment.
Under the revised Clean Air Plan proposals, Manchester could meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide by 2026 at the latest through:
CLEAN TAXI FUND
l £22.5m to offer grants of between £3,770 and £12,560: Would support upgrades to every non-compliant eligible hackney cab and private hire vehicle licensed with a Greater Manchester authority by October 2024.
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charging infrastructure at bus depots, and upgrading 77 buses to be Euro VI (clean air compliant).
AND
l £5m investment in local traffic measures:
To manage traffic
flow on roads in Manchester and Salford.
l £8m for electric hackney upgrades: Providing grants of between £7,530 and £12,560 to support owners of GM-licensed hackney carriages who meet the minimum emission standard upgrade to a zero- emission capable vehicle.
l Upgrades would need to meet new minimum emission standards being introduced by Greater Manchester local authorities by 31 December 2025 (date to be reviewed if government does not agree to the Clean Taxi Fund).
l Compliant vehicles: Hackney carriages and private hire vehicles with an internal com- bustion engine would need to be either Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel or be a fully zero-emissions capable electric vehicle.
l Proposed taxi grants are aligned with those offered under the 2021 GM Clean Air Plan with an uplift of 25.6%, reflecting inflation and changes in prices since
grants were developed. PLUS
l £51.1m investment in 40 new zero-emission electric buses, EV
originally
l The plan also proposes removing over 1,000 Clean Air Zone signs across the region.
l Evidence shows that the
proposed investment-led Clean Air Plan will improve air quality faster than a Clean Air Zone – this can be achieved without causing hardship to residents or businesses.
Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, Clean Air lead for Greater Manchester, expressed confidence
in the
government’s approval of the revised plan. He said: “The latest air quality monitoring data shows a really encouraging trend and we’ve done this without the hardship to residents and businesses that a charging Clean Air Zone could cause. “Given some of the changes that have occurred in the last nine months, there was a need to adapt and update our proposals for an investment-led, non-charging GM Clean Air Plan. “We are now in a position where that work has been done and, we can submit our updated plan to the new Government as soon as possible and await their decision.”
NOVEMBER 2024 PHTM
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