Government makes Clean Air pledge

The UK Government has announced that it’s introducing five Clean Air Zones to improve air quality and help the UK meet EU nitrogen oxide targets.

The Clean Air Zones are being introduced in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton. They will not affect private car owners, instead targeting the most polluting vehicles such as old buses, taxis, coaches and lorries.

The announcement has been welcomed by Autogas Limited. General manager Linda Gomersall said, ‘We’re extremely encouraged by these latest plans to help clean up air quality in the UK’s most affected towns and cities.’

Autogas is playing a leading role in improving air quality in the UK, as Linda explained, ‘We have already made significant progress with Birmingham in helping the city replace its taxi fleet with a cleaner LPG solution.

‘The creation of the Clean Air Zones and the ongoing focus of vehicles such as taxi cabs means that we are confident that many other towns and cities will now look towards pioneering cities such as Birmingham and see how they too can introduce a cleaner LPG powered alternative that can make an immediate positive impact.’

Autogas has also presented its LPG-powered TX4 black cab on the Parliamentary estate, while the vehicle has just completed a series of tests which show it produces significantly lower levels of NOx emissions compared with a normal diesel-powered version.

What’s more, in addition to reducing harmful emissions, taxi drivers would also see fuel cost savings of around 20% while being able to conveniently refuel from any of the 1,400 sites nationwide which already offer autogas LPG.

Linda added, ‘We look forward to further discussions with DEFRA to ensure that drivers of retrofitted LPG vehicles can enter the Clean Air Zones without any restrictions and helping address the clean air challenge on a much wider basis. Furthermore we are keen to talk to any other councils, local authorities or van fleets about how LPG can help them reduce their vehicle emissions.’