"They are only a hair’s breadth below": New clean air zone only complies with law by rounding down the numbers

The new clean air zone plan for Greater Manchester will only comply with the law by ‘rounding down the numbers’.

That’s according to campaign group Let Manchester Breathe, which says the new CAZ will only bring pollution in the air below legal limits ‘by a hair’s breadth’. Its concerns were echoed by several councillors at a meeting of the city-region’s clean air committee today (December 20).

During that meeting, councillors formally approved sending the new ‘investment-led’ CAZ to the government to get a final thumbs up. Unveiled last week by mayor Andy Burnham and clean air lead Eamonn O’Brien, the new plan will not charge motorists for driving anywhere in Greater Manchester.

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Instead, the new approach will see buses replaced by zero-emissions vehicles, at a cost of £51 million, and a further £30 million will be allocated for a ‘clean taxi fund’, so cabbies can upgrade their cars to cleaner or electric models. Additionally, a further £5 million will be spent on improving traffic flow at two key locations in the city.

They are the A57 Regent Road in Salford, where the speed limit will be dropped from 40mph to 30mph and traffic light timings will be altered, and Quay Street in Manchester, where congestion reduction measures will be introduced. That will lead to more effective compliance with the law quicker than a ‘benchmark’ city-centre CAZ, leaders insisted last week.

But data in a report from the Mayor’s office shows that, even after the trio of schemes are finished, Regent Road’s air