ADEPT's view on Government's Air Quality Plan
Simon Neilson, President of ADEPT said: “ADEPT welcomes the Government’s recognition of the strong calls, like our own, for national leadership on improving air quality and its first steps in providing that lead, but many details are either unclear, yet to be determined or left with stretched local authorities.
“We agree that local authorities are often best placed to take local action, as they know their areas, but it would be more helpful to have a set of nationally agreed options to support councils with technical expertise, time and resource. The Clean Air Fund will be a competitive process, pitching councils against each other while again spending more time and scarce resource preparing uncertain bids.
“Charging is one of the most effective and speediest measure open to local authorities but we think the Government should have shown strong, national commitment to implementation, rather than leaving it to local authorities to introduce such politically unpalatable measures.
“Much of the additional funding included in the plan has been announced before and while we await with interest the details of the £225m Implementation Fund, we need far more clarity on the legal duties and responsibilities to be placed on already hard pressed local authorities.”