Proposed by Councillor Thomas, seconded by Councillor Wolff

Green member motion

This Council is committed to improving air quality within the city, which currently breaches EU limits in some areas (the annual mean Air Quality Strategy objective for NO2 was breached at two out of three of the continuously monitored sites and 24% of the diffusion tube sites.

[Source: Oxford City Council 2016 Air Quality Annual Status Report; July 2017]).

It recognises the need to take more local action but acknowledges that this can more easily take place within a more supportive, national policy and legal framework.

This Council therefore calls upon the UK Government to:

1.           Publish a new Clean Air Act, fit for the 21st Century, which improves on and strengthens existing legislation, establishing clean air as a human right in law¹. Polling shows that 65% of British public support a new Clean Air Act².

2.           Spend at least £30 per person annually on walking and cycling. This is an increase from the Government's current spend of £6.50 per person per year³. Money could be redirected from the huge £30 billion allocated to new roads between 2015/16 till 2020/21⁴.

3.           Bring forward the phase out of petrol and diesel car sales from 2040 to 2030 at the latest.

4.           Implement an expanded national network of Clean Air Zones by the end of 2018⁵, mandated and funded by central Government, to end all illegal air pollution levels as soon as possible within the next two years.

5.           Create and fund a targeted diesel scrappage scheme⁶  that trades cars for public transport tokens, low emissions car club memberships, cargo bike and electric bike discounts, and subsidies for public transport and clean vehicle infrastructure, including subsidies specifically targeted at lower income drivers and small businesses.

6.           Increase the Vehicle Excise Duty for new diesel cars announced in the Autumn Budget 2017 - by at least £800 - so as to reflect the additional cost to society of dirty diesel engines. This would generate £500 million a year, which should be directed at helping fund a targeted diesel scrappage scheme, and not road building or car-dependent development.

and asks the Leader to write to senior ministers and local MPs to inform them of this.

References

1 https://cleanair.london/legal/clean-air-is-a-human-right/

2 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/14/65-percent-british-public-want-clean-air-act-pollution-harmful-uk-survey

3 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/apr/26/the-government-just-announced-a-gamechanger-for-cycling-in-england

4 http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/blog/roads/231114-road-spending-30-billion

5 https://cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/Too%20little%20too%20late%20-%20a%20critique%20of%20the%20Air%20Quality%20Plan%20FINAL%2017102017%20UPDATED.pdf

6 http://content.tfl.gov.uk/proposal-national-vehicle-scrappage-fund.pdf

This motion was not taken because the time for discussing motions had elapsed.