Yorkshire leaders urge May to take air pollution action

Yorkshire political leaders have joined widespread calls for Theresa May to take action on air pollution.

Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis, Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake and Bradford Metropolitan District Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe were among a group 17 local and regional leaders to sign an open letter to the Prime Minister calling for action on “toxic air”.

Leeds, York, Sheffield and Hull were in May named among the UK’s 30 cities which breach World Health Organisation limits for air pollution, highlighting the scale of the problem gripping the region.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Leeds has already unveiled plans to create a Clean Air Zone after it was named as one of 29 local authorities whose roads breached legal pollution levels, including a proposal to charge high polluting vehicles up to £50 a day for entering certain parts of the city centre.

Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council, said: “A key theme that came from the National Clean Air Summit earlier this year was around the action required by the Government on the issue of local air quality plans and proposals.

“We need to make sure we are aligning priorities on both a national and local level to ensure that proposed actions and initiatives to improve air quality are able to be implemented.”

Damaged health: Page 2