FSB celebrates curtains for the Clean Air Zone
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) announced today that the unpopular Clean Air Zone conceived all the way back in 2017 is finally being put to bed. It has acknowledged the latest data shows vehicle pollution levels across the GM City Region continue to fall at pace.
The green light has now been given to councils to remove the CAZ signage, with that work having already stated in some local authority areas, and plans to transfer the web of ANPR cameras to GMP to help tackle serious and violent crimes.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the only business organisation to oppose the CAZ plans from the very outset and a leading voice in calls to axe the scheme, described today’s development as a victory for common sense, and a welcome ray of good news for local businesses in challenging times.
FSB Development Manager in GM, Robert Downes, said: “Today’s announcement marks the end of a protracted lobbying campaign in which FSB as an organisation fought tooth and nail against a very harmful retrospective policy change. While we’ve known the CAZ was all but dead and buried quite some time ago, it’s symbolic and definitive to learn that plans are now in motion to bring down the signage.
“Despite all the effort we put in to opposing the CAZ it was, ironically, the signs going up in the first place that triggered the massive reaction from both the business community and the wider public when they woke up to the huge financial implications of what was being proposed.
“You only now have to look around the country to see other city regions who rushed ahead with similar schemes to see how they have hammered businesses, many of whom have been forced to close because of the unavoidable costs. While it may have taken local decision makers a while to come around, it’s always better late than never.”
TfGM documents which will go before GM’s Air Quality Administration Committee later this month, show pollution levels across the city region heading south, continuing a trend evident for several years. With EV sales picking up speed, fleets of older, more polluting vehicles phasing out with time, and a thousand new electric busses ordered for the Bee Network bus fleet, FSB said air quality was only going to get better, and exponentially.
“We had always campaigned on these issues, and we have been proven right. There was no need for a CAZ in the 2020s with vehicle technology moving as it was. So, today’s announcement is a victory for common sense, a victory for lobbying, and will hopefully be a small ray of sunshine for businesses in what’s a really gloomy economic period.”