'What is going to be done now to protect our children's lungs?' - Families' fury over Clean Air Zone delay

When Steve Marsland was a schoolboy in the sixties his walk to school in Denton was often through a thick smog which wrapped around buildings dyed a dingy grey by soot in the air.

Sulphur dioxide from burning coal would react with fog droplets, producing a toxic yellow suspension of sulphuric acid, creeping its way into eyes and lungs.

“Every terraced house had a chimney that belched out coal smoke, so did every factory,” he recalls.

READ MORE: Andy Burnham says new Clean Air Zone scheme will be 'substantially different' - but can't rule out charges

“We were surrounded by smoke and nobody thought any different. You wrapped a scarf around your mouth and just got on with it.”

Now Steve is headteacher of Russell Scott Primary School, in the same catchment area where he grew up, his childhood memories of that smog and soot are consigned to his pupils’ history lessons.

But the ‘invisible’ pollution of 2022, the toxic gases coughed up by cars and spewed out by lorries which rumble along roads around their campus, and on the nearby M60 and M67, are actually just as dangerous as Manchester’s air during its industrial heyday, say scientists.

Clean Air Zone Delayed

And yet a large part of the Clean Air Zone, the region’s main weapon in its armoury to combat particulates and nitrogen dioxide - the deadliest gas emitted by vehicles - has just been delayed by mayor Andy Burnham and the 10 councils amid a backlash from business owners and cabbies who faced financial ruin.

The scheme to charge the most polluting lorries, vans and private hire vehicles was due to come into force in May, but the GMCA has now been given until July to submit a revised plan.

The announcement came after hundreds of cabbies protested the proposals amid