SOUTHAMPTON is set to bid for a share of £3 million to help fund plans to clean up the city.

City leaders have drawn up an action plan to tackle the poor air quality in Southampton after it was named as one of a number of ‘toxic cities’ in the UK which breached EU limits on pollution.

The city is one of five that have been named as having to adopt Clean Air Zones (CAZ) by 2020 in a bid to tackle the problem – but city leaders say they are ahead of schedule.

Council leaders have drawn up plans for a zone that would include a number of measures including the introduction by 2019 of a Low Emissions Zone in the city centre and offering a host of incentives to encourage people to adopt greener transport options.

The CAZ, which is yet to be published, includes offering priority parking spaces for low emission vehicles, reductions on residents permits and money off tariffs like the Itchen bridge.

The issue sparked the launch of the Daily Echo’s Breathe Easy campaign which hopes to highlight the issues facing the city.

Cabinet Member for Transformation Projects at Southampton City Council, Councillor Chris Hammond said: “We’re committed to the Clean Air Zone charging schemes for the most polluting, buses, taxis and HGVs to be introduced in 2019.

“Southampton City Council will announce its CAZ next year, ahead of the charges, and introduce a programme of supporting measures to start delivering improvements within the next two to three years.

Daily Echo:

“We’ll be implementing our zone and plans ahead of schedule – rather than waiting for the government target of 2020.

"The funding we secure from the Air Quality Grant will help us to make real and lasting to change to the air quality in the city.

“It’s what residents demand and what we’re passionate about delivering”

The Department for the Environment and Rural affairs (DEFRA) yesterday announced the launch of a public consultation on how best to introduce a new Clean Air Zone for the city.

The department also announced councils can bid for a share of £3 million of funding to help pay for the measures they wanted to adopt.

The zones are targeted at areas of the city where air quality problems are the most serious to reduce the impact on people’s health and create cleaner and healthier environments.

The aim to reduce pollution in city centres and encourage the replacement of old, polluting vehicles with modern, cleaner vehicles – with most polluting vehicles, such as old buses taxis, coaches and lorries, discouraged from entering air quality hotspots. Private car owners will not be affected.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said: “We need to tackle air pollution and Creating Clean Air Zones will improve the quality of life for people who live and work in our towns and cities, both now and in the future.”

The consultation will run for eight weeks after which Defra will then review responses and publish the final framework next year.

The consultation can be found at bit.ly/2dZMoSp.