Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) that had also been considered by the Business, Economy and Enterprise Scrutiny Board (3) at their meeting on 11^th July 2018 (their minute 5/18 referred), on the development of a Local Air Quality Action Plan for Coventry. A briefing note was tabled setting out the recommendations of the Scrutiny Board, for the Cabinet’s consideration.

In July 2017, the Government published the “United Kingdom Plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations”, and Coventry was named as one of 22 towns and cities within the UK where NO₂ levels were forecast to exceed legal limits by 2020. The Government had established a Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) to work with the relevant local authorities to achieve the legal limits for NO₂ in the shortest possible time within the identified towns and cities.

To meet JAQU requirements, the City Council needed to develop a Local Air Quality Action Plan (LAQAP) setting out how the Council would achieve the legal limits for NO₂ in the shortest possible time. This LAQAP, supported by a Full Business Case identifying the resources required to implement it, needed to be submitted to JAQU by the end of 2018. 

An initial Strategic Outline Case (SOC) for the LAQAP was submitted to JAQU in March 2018, outlining the range of measures under consideration for inclusion in the LAQAP, as outlined in Paragraph 2.1 of the report. The SOC would form the basis for the further development of the LAQAP.  Further work was underway to investigate possible routes to achieve compliance including promoting the use of electric vehicles and utilising the latest technology to maximize the efficiency of the road network and to promote changes in travel behaviour.

In the meantime the City Council had been successful in obtaining funding to help reduce NO₂ including:

1. £2.021m ‘early measures’ funding which will be targeted at the A4600 corridor (Ball Hill)
2. £1.5m ‘clean bus technology’ fund for retrofitting over 100 National Express buses to make them Euro 6 compliant
3. £300,000 for the introduction of residential on-street electric vehicle charging.

Cabinet approval was sought to add these to the capital programme.

The Government had also published details of the latest round of the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (ULEBS) whilst Innovate UK was also currently calling for bids , to be submitted by the end of June, to its Research and Development Fund for on-street and wireless charging technologies for electric vehicles.  Both of these offered opportunities for the City Council to develop further bids for funding that would support the operation of electric-powered buses within the City, initially through a pilot project based on the Walsgrave Road corridor.  This would clearly contribute towards achieving NO₂ compliance within the City as part of the Air Quality Action Plan.

The Government published the draft National Clean Air Strategy for consultation on 22^nd May 2018  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16