Few transport topics divide opinion quite like the Clean Air Zone. To some, they are a common-sense way of cleaning up the air that we all breathe, whilst to others they are little more than a needless charge on motorists who already feel as though they are being squeezed at every turn.
For a while, it looked as though Guildford might have to come down on one side or the other, with the idea of introducing a zone of its own having been floated as a way of tackling the town’s air quality problem. After plenty of deliberation, though, the borough’s councillors have decided against bringing one in, opting instead for a more targeted approach to the issue.
Why the Clean Air Zone Was Rejected
Guildford Borough Council’s cabinet has accepted a feasibility report that concluded a Clean Air Zone, or CAZ, would be ‘not proportionate to local need’.
Problematic Park Street
The reason given is a fairly specific one, in that the town’s air quality problem is concentrated almost entirely on a single spot, namely Park Street, where vehicles are forced to travel uphill before being held at a set of traffic lights. As the consultant behind the study, Dr Margarethe Theseira, explained to councillors,
It isn’t just the traffic lights, it’s the slope that approaches that junction that causes more emissions than you may expect.
It was that narrow focus that ultimately made a town-wide scheme look like overkill, with the Council instead able to zero in on the one location where the numbers are a cause for concern. Cost was the other major factor in the decision, and it isn’t difficult to see why. The report warned that a blanket scheme could run into the millions, pointing to the example of Bath, where a Clean Air Zone cost in the region of £10 million to set up and a further £2 million a year to run. The worry was that Guildford could end up spending heavily on a scheme designed to tackle a problem confined to one street, with uncertain returns to show for it.
Cars Emissions Standards
That said, the research did underline why action of some sort is needed, finding that only 68% of cars registered in Guildford meet the emissions standards used by London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone. That figure drops to just 57% when it comes to vans, which is likely to put an added strain on small businesses. Rather than reaching for a charging zone, the council now favours a package of more targeted measures, which could include better traffic management, engineering fixes at Park Street and incentives designed to encourage more people to walk and cycle.
Revised Action Plan Needed
The whole idea had sparked a fair amount of concern over its potential impact on residents, businesses and visitors, which is partly why a detailed economic assessment was commissioned before any decision was made in the first place. With that work now done, the cabinet has agreed to report its findings to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and to come back with a revised draft Air Quality Action Plan within the next six months. The message, then, is that Guildford wants cleaner air just as much as the next town, but it has decided that a charging zone isn’t the way to go about getting it.