The health of people living on the outskirts of Newcastle will be put at risk by the city’s new Clean Air Zone (CAZ), councillors claim.
After years of planning, new tolls on some high-polluting vehicles came into force on Monday – initially affecting older buses, coaches, taxis, and lorries driving into Newcastle city centre. The heavy charges, which can be as high as £50 per day, are being imposed in response to a Government order demanding that local councils cut illegal levels of emissions in certain hotspots.
But councillors in the west of Newcastle now fear that their communities will be the next problem area for emissions. Jason Smith, leader of the Newcastle Independents party, worries that many motorists who used the Tyne Bridge and Central Motorway to head through, rather than to, the city centre will now divert to the A1 to avoid the CAZ.
Read More: Newcastle Clean Air Zone: What you need to know about new pollution tolls
The Lemington councillor said: “We support the aim of improving air quality in the city centre but much fewer families live in the area covered by the Clean Air Zone than live along the length of the A1. It is not acceptable for high polluting vehicles to be pushed in much bigger numbers to the outer edges of the city and pollute the air that children in Lemington ward have to breathe.”
Denton and Westerhope councillor Tracey Mitchell added: “Parts of Denton and Westerhope are already struggling with higher emissions caused by congestion created as a consequence of additional houses but no new road infrastructure to cope with the increase in traffic.”
Speaking ahead of the CAZ’s launch last week, pollution expert Anil Namdeo admitted that there is a risk of the tolls pushing the city centre’s emissions problem elsewhere. Prof Namdeo, a professor of air quality management at Northumbria University, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Some of the measures we take might shift the problem from one area to another.
"If you have a congestion charge area then people might avoid it and go to another area, it has been noticed in Europe and the UK that people avoid the charging zone and increase traffic in nearby areas. There is a slight risk of shifting the problem.”
More than 300 premature deaths on Tyneside every year are linked to poor air quality. Asked last week if the city centre tolls could result in rising pollution around the A1 or the Tyne Tunnel, Newcastle City Council leader Nick Kemp said: “If they chose to go to those two destinations where there are no residential properties I will be quite happy. [But] there is always a thought around unintended consequences.”
The Labour councillor added: “We have an edict placed on us by central government, we are simply responding in the best way possible for our residents.”
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