Banning new petrol and diesel cars a ‘smokescreen’ for lacklustre air quality plan, says CILT

Following publication of the Government’s Air Quality Plan, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) believes that government could do better than the “weak and timid” plans, particularly given the urgency and the health risks. The Institute recently criticised the draft plan, saying the proposed measures to reduce NO2 concentrations were likely to be ineffective. Many towns and cities in England suffer excessive – and illegal – levels of NO2 concentrations on their busiest roads and these
August 2, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
Following publication of the Government’s Air Quality Plan, the 6500 Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) believes that government could do better than the “weak and timid” plans, particularly given the urgency and the health risks.


The Institute recently criticised the draft plan, saying the proposed measures to reduce NO2 concentrations were likely to be ineffective. Many towns and cities in England suffer excessive – and illegal – levels of NO2 concentrations on their busiest roads and these levels are now known to be injurious to health. CILT believes that charging non-compliant vehicles to enter Clean Air Zones (CAZs) is the only way to bring these concentrations down quickly and tackle the health risk. However, the draft plan treated this as a last resort after all other methods could be shown to fail. CILT is disappointed to see that the new Air Quality plans perpetuate this same approach.

CILT is pleased to see that the new plan does now contain a new option for local authorities – recommended by the Institute in response to the draft plan – to consider the simple exclusion of old, polluting vehicles from CAZs as an alternative to charging; as is common in some 200 towns and cities in 13 countries across Europe.

We recommend that this option should be explored by local authorities, as a practical approach to tackle euro-emission requirements for compliant vehicles, and can be introduced initially for older vehicles, and then progressively tightened over time as the community gets used to the measures.

The Government’s announcement to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel engine cars and vans from 2040 is a welcome step. This will bring benefits of CO2 reduction as well as improving local air quality. However, CILT feel that this announcement does nothing to help the immediate air quality problems which require determined action now. This announcement has been described as a ‘smokescreen’ to draw attention away from the ineffectiveness of the immediate plans.

Government has issued direction to 23 designated local authorities to prepare and evaluate options to bring NO2 concentrations within legal limits by March 2018, and to have firm implementation plans by December 2018. Among the various options available, they place the onus entirely on local authorities to make the case for charging non-compliant vehicles, and do not provide any political ‘cover’ and CILT continues to see this as is a weak and timid approach, particularly given the urgency and the health risks.

Air Quality & Weather Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • First pan-London Car Club Action Plan launched
    May 21, 2015
    Around 85 per cent of UK car club members already based in London New plan will help reach new joint target of one million London car club members by 2025 Future growth of car clubs will help improve London’s air quality and reduce congestion in the Capital A new ‘strategy for car clubs’ in London has been launched today (21 May), to encourage residents and businesses across the capital to sign up to car club schemes as an alternative to direct car ownership. The new action plan, jointly developed b
    Read More
  • “Chaotic” roads will stall self-driving cars
    July 31, 2014
    The Road Safety Markings Association (RSMA) has responded to the UK government’s announcement giving driverless cars the go-ahead on UK roads, saying that it points to an exciting future, but hampered at the outset by the daily routine of road works, potholes, worn road markings, burst mains and failed traffic lights. “By 2025, at least half the travel on Europe’s roads will be in vehicles that can read the road ahead including markings and signs. But vehicles, like drivers, cannot function if basic road
    Read More
  • No city is a traffic island
    April 2, 2024
    Beate Kubitz reflects on the rising tide of suburban drivers - and how cities across Europe are dealing with them as worries over air quality multiply
    Read More
  • Scrap all-lane running plans, say MPs
    June 30, 2016
    Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of
    Read More

Highlighted Content