The 1,194 Clean Air Zone signs across Greater Manchester which give wrong date

More than 1,000 Clean Air Zone signs peppered around Greater Manchester will have to be altered with stickers after the scheme was paused.

A firm called McCann has already been contracted by transport bosses to undertake the arduous yet necessary job of amending 1,194 signs which wrongly state the scheme to charge high-emission vehicles will start on May 30.

However, when asked by the Manchester Evening News , Clean Air Greater Manchester said a cost for the job to plaster over a section of the signage, due to start 'in the coming weeks', had yet to be agreed.

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It's also as yet unclear whether the stickers will feature an alternative date (a risky strategy), a message, an image or just be blank to 'erase' the date.

Daily charges for HGVs, buses, non-Greater Manchester licensed taxis and private hire vehicles had been due to start on May 30.

Greater Manchester-licensed taxis and private hire vehicles, meanwhile, would have been liable from June 2023.

However, amid concerns over financial hardship for drivers and global supply chain issues, the government agreed to postpone the deadline from 2024 to 2026 for Greater Manchester to lower pollution levels to legal limits, buying time for its architects to review their initial plans.

A ‘substantially different’ scheme is now expected to be revealed by July.

But many elements of the Clean Air Zone were already underway, including the installation of 1,309 signs, 1,194 of which reference the launch date of May 30 2022 - a date now rendered defunct.

A spokesman said: “Work is ongoing between TfGM and its contractor to finalise the programme costs for the sticker on the affected