Air Quality A53 Basford Ministerial Directive

Newcastle’s Deputy Leader, Stephen Sweeney, who represents the Borough Council on the air quality Joint Advisory Group (JAG), has responded to the statements recently made by two Stoke-on-Trent City Councillors when discussing the A53 Basford air quality Ministerial Directive and the joint plans to comply with it.

Cllr. Sweeney said: “We are quite frankly astounded to hear of Cllr. Jellyman’s recent ‘disappointment’ in our joint approach to the air quality issues around the A53 in Basford which, for clarification, is the border between the two authorities and therefore the issues affect both the borough and the city.”

“For the past few years Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council have been jointly responding to a Ministerial Directive Order. The order requires both authorities to combat the levels of air pollution in the A53 Basford area in the interests of the health of our residents, as soon as possible.

“Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is continuing to work together with the city and county councils, as the Government Directive requires us to do, through the cross-agency Joint Advisory Group for air quality, chaired by Stoke-on-Trent City Councillor Carl Edwards and attended occasionally by Councillor Daniel Jellyman.

“After initial consideration following the order, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council jointly rejected a charging zone option (CAZ) for Etruria Road.

“It was calculated that a 24-hour-a-day CAZ would take around £200 million out of the North Staffordshire economy – devastating for local business. Secondly, it would deter people from visiting Newcastle town centre.

“Instead it was jointly agreed in December 2020 by all three authorities to progress a traffic-based solution that involves a bus gate.

“The bus gate would restrict traffic to the affected area only during ‘rush hours’ but even with this minimal restriction it will potentially cause significant inconvenience to those drivers affected and also lead to unacceptable ‘rat-running’ on other local roads.

“In October 2021 the Borough Council’s Cabinet asked for new modelling to be carried out to measure current/future post-Covid traffic patterns to ascertain if there has been any reduction in the pollution levels that would negate the need for a bus gate - in other words natural compliance.

“The Council has also lobbied local members of parliament to raise the grave concerns that many residents have in Newcastle-under-Lyme about the implications of traffic problems on other roads potentially caused by the Etruria Road bus gate restriction.  

“We are not aware of Cllr. Jellyman doing the same on behalf of the residents of his City.”   

David Williams, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, said: “We are responding to a Government order to improve public health as quickly as possible by removing illegal levels of pollution.

“After initial consideration following the order, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council rejected a charging zone option, because it was calculated that it would take around £200 million out of the North Staffordshire economy and it would deter people from visiting Newcastle town centre.

“Crucially the traffic-based solutions jointly agreed by all three authorities could be implemented more quickly than a charging zone – and therefore people’s health could be improved more quickly.”

He added: “In an area where emergency hospital admissions for asthma and COPD-related conditions are among the worse in the Midlands, and the number of preventable deaths from respiratory disease is above the national average, I think that the priority of protecting and improving people’s health as quickly as possible remains paramount.

“Not only does vehicle pollution have a disproportionate impact on the young and old, the sick and the poor, it is the largest environmental risk to public health in this country and the illnesses arising from it have a huge cost for the NHS.

“We continue to monitor traffic volumes on Basford Bank and although the bus gate is still scheduled to go live in early 2024, if current pollution readings remain below the minimum safe level, as they have last year, we may even not need to implement this measure.

“However, if we must implement the scheme, we will look to have it removed as soon as it has served its purpose.

“We have been working with Stoke-on-Trent and despite the changes to the initial order they have decided on, we are willing to continue working with them to introduce their scheme in order to improve their residents’ environment.

“There will be more details later this year as Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Councils are also applying to the Government for financial support for businesses and residents in the area which may be affected by its implementation.”