The York Council looks set to agree to ban high emission buses and commercial vehicles from the City.
A low emission strategy, first proposed in 2010 should finally get the green light next Tuesday. However, a public consultation exercise conducted earlier in the year attracted responses from fewer than 50 residents.
Sadly the road this strategy has followed has been tortuous and is littered with exaggerated claims and false starts.
A Labour opposition spokesman claimed in 2009 that 158 people died in York because of poor air quality. That seemed unlikely and it emerged last month that this figure was a pro rata extrapolation of a national study which cited “50,000” deaths. The logic applied was that because York has 0.3% of the UK population then it must have the same proportion of air quality deaths!!
In fact no accurate statistical evidence, of the effect that air quality has on local health, currently exists.
Nevertheless, the City now needs to make more progress on improving air quality (a problem in some of our narrow streets, when, in the absence of any wind, levels of NO2 and PMs can reach unacceptable levels). An officer report candidly admits that they don’t actually know why emission levels have been rising recently at some locations. They vaguely blame it on an increase in the number of diesel fuelled vehicles.
It is unfortunate that when Labour took control of the Council in May 2011 they jettisoned some important initiatives.
• A low emission bus trial was taking place on the Fulford corridor http://tinyurl.com/York-eco-bus. This was abandoned as the Council went on an, ultimately fruitless, search for a citywide bus franchise. Relations with York’s largest bus service provider also deteriorated against a background of public recriminations. No low emission buses have yet been ordered for the City (http://tinyurl.com/Low-emission-bus-setback).
eco bus
• Talks started in 2008 with a taxi operator who was interested in running low emission hybrid cars in the City. With the Council dithering over its priorities for taxi design the opportunity was lost and other Cities have now overtaken York. http://tinyurl.com/York-eco-cabs
• One of the first budget changes made by the new Council was to increase the ResPark badge fees paid by the owners of low emission vehicles. (Ironically they froze the charges for larger vehicles)
• Trials of a new car for the Lord Mayor had been going on for several months. The last Council had decided to evaluate the new Toyota Prius Plus, 7 seater, which was launched in the summer. Unfortunately by then, the new Council had opted for a more expensive vehicle with a 2.4 litre diesel engine. The opportunity to set an example was lost.
More hybrid cars in York over last few months
• Labour are also pressing ahead with their 20 mph citywide speed limit. This means that most cars will – if they observe the limit – be pushing out higher emissions than they would if they were travelling at 30 mph.
But the main failing of the current approach is the continued unwillingness of the Council to admit how much the transport changes (and particularly the vehicle bans) will cost and what the likely timescale is for it’s implementation. All the report to Tuesdays meeting http://tinyurl.com/emissions-York-9th-Oct-2012 says is that a further report will appear next year.
To support their plan the Council have issued a media statement which includes the following:
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