The UK government has awarded £652,000 (€709,816) to Liverpool City Council to complete its proposed Liverpool clean air strategy.
The funding, which will go towards supporting the full implementation of the Liverpool clean air proposals by the city’s deadline in October 2019, comes in addition to £1m (€1.09m) previously allocated to Liverpool by the government to support the city’s implementation of measures addressing climate change. Liverpool, which officially declared a climate emergency in July, is working towards achieving full carbon neutrality across the city by 2030.
Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: “Our population is growing and that means higher levels of traffic which causes around 70 percent of air pollution across the city as a whole, with the worst air quality next to congested roads. The quality of air we breathe affects our health and wellbeing and we are all affected by it, particularly children and the elderly, and long-term exposure can contribute to heart disease, stroke and respiratory diseases like asthma.
The new Liverpool clean air funding, which follows proposals for a ‘green city’ deal submitted by Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson to the government in late July, will go towards providing air quality monitoring technology and emissions reduction measures for the city’s transport system.
Councillor Robertson-Collins added: “The city-wide clean air plan is a key piece of work to understand the challenges that we face and find ways to tackle the issue. We are leading by example, by changing our fleet of vehicles to be greener, encouraging hackney drivers to move over to less polluting vehicles and working with Merseytravel to deliver a better and cleaner bus service. We’re looking to reduce traffic congestion in key areas and make improvements to roads and walkways to encourage people to walk and cycle more. But we cannot remove cars without providing a proper 21st century public transport system, and I want us to be to be working much more closely with our transport partners on making improvements. We want Liverpool to have cleaner air so people live longer and a better quality of life.”
