Greater Manchester is preparing to submit an updated Clean Air Plan to government, as the latest air quality data shows improvements on local roads across the city-region.
The preferred plan would still mean that there would be no charges for any vehicle driven on a road in the city-region, as well as investment in new buses and a fund to help taxi drivers upgrade their vehicles.
Modelling shows the plan would meet a legal requirement to improve air quality by 2026 at the latest, rather than in 2025, as stated in GM’s 2023 submission to government.
An alternative plan that models a benchmark charging Clean Air Zone in the centre of Manchester and bordering parts of Salford would not meet the legal deadline.
A key element of the proposed plan is investment in cleaner buses, and latest figures show improvements in the Greater Manchester bus fleet is already helping to improve air quality, with air quality monitoring data for 2023 showing that air pollution has fallen compared to 2022 – and is significantly lower than levels recorded pre-pandemic in 2019.
Five years ago, air quality monitoring data showed 129 locations of nitrogen dioxide exceedance. This has now fallen to 64 sites across the city region.
The gradual improvement has been partly driven by the investment in hundreds of cleaner buses, including Zero Emission Buses for the Bee Network. Prior to franchising less than 1% of vehicles were electric and that is now more than 10% in areas where buses are under local control – and will rise to more than 15% following completion of bus franchising in January, when around 70% of the fleet will be, on average, less than 12 months old.
It means that Greater Manchester is on target for a third of its bus fleet to be electric by 2027 and is working towards an ambition to have an all-electric bus fleet by 2030.
Despite delivering the electrification of bus depots at pace, with work already complete at Bolton and Oldham, and further upgrades to be made at Middleton, Ashton, Hyde and Bolton in the next 12 months, the revised plan takes into account a delay to a new all-electric depot at Stockport which will now not be available in the timescale required for the GM Clean Air Plan. Electrification of the Queens Road depot is now expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester remain absolutely committed to having an all-electric bus depot and fleet in Stockport.
The revised Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan also includes updates to air quality modelling – the process of forecasting, understanding and managing future levels of air pollution. This includes the latest information on where Bee Network buses are running in the city region, and a correction to modelled emissions of government-funded retrofitted buses.
Leader of Bury Council and Clean Air lead for Greater Manchester, Cllr Eamonn O’Brien, said: “Poor air quality affects us all and particularly the most vulnerable among us – the young, old and those with health conditions. We have a longstanding commitment to cleaning up our air and Greater Manchester has carried out a tremendous amount of work to get us to a place where we are seeing air quality improvements.
“The latest air quality monitoring data shows a really encouraging trend and indicates that the steps we’ve already taken to invest in cleaner buses through the Bee Network are making real inroads to cleaning up the air we all breathe. And we’ve done this without the hardship to residents and businesses that a charging Clean Air Zone could cause.
“Given some of the changes that have occurred in the last nine months, there was a need to adapt and update our proposals for an investment-led, non-charging GM Clean Air Plan. We’re now in a position where that work has been done and, subject to approvals, we can submit our updated plan to the new government as soon as possible and await their decision.”
Using £86.7m of Clean Air funding that has already been allocated to Greater Manchester, the plan would use £51.1m for 40 new Zero Emission Buses (ZEBs), depot electrification in Manchester and Bolton, and 77 new Euro VI clean air compliant buses (whereas the previous plan was for 64 new ZEBs and depot electrification in Manchester, Bolton and Middleton).
There is no change to proposals that would see £30.5m made available to help owners of all eligible hackney carriage and private hire vehicles to upgrade to a cleaner vehicle and £5m invested in local traffic measures to better manage traffic flow – and bring nitrogen dioxide within legal limits – on Regent Road and Quay Street.
The updated Clean Air Plan has been published on 18 September 2024 in a report to the Greater Manchester Air Quality Administration Committee. The committee is recommended to approve and submit the revised plan to the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit when it meets on Tuesday 1 October. Government will decide what the final Clean Air Plan includes.
