Clean air zone: M4 pollution charge powers for ministers approved

Powers to make drivers pay a pollution charge on the M4 and major A roads have been approved in the Welsh Parliament.

Labour’s Welsh government has put the powers in a proposed clean air law, but says it has no plans to use them.

Conservatives lost an attempt to remove the powers from the Environment Bill during a series of Senedd votes.

A separate call for targets to reduce a harmful gas created by vehicle engines was also defeated.

Charges can currently only be imposed on Wales’ trunk road network – the M4 motorway and major A roads – in limited circumstances.

The bill would change that, allowing the Welsh government to charge drivers to enter clean air zones anywhere on the network.

A Tory amendment to the bill was defeated by Labour and Plaid Cymru MSs on Tuesday night.

The Conservatives’ shadow climate change minister Janet Finch-Saunders attacked the “government’s failure to adequately support public transport”.

“In some instances that [public transport] isn’t an option and cars are the only option,” she said.

Climate Change Minister Julie James said there were “no current plans” to impose charges on trunk roads and clean air zones were “a precautionary retained measures which could be introduced on certain roads if other measures prove insufficient to meet our obligations”.

Two potential zones have been considered – on the M4 at Newport and a stretch of the A470 near Pontypridd.

The speed limit has been cut to 50mph in both places – and at three other sites – in an attempt to reduce the amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air.

Government documents say clean air charges will only be considered if there is not a long-term reduction in the amount of NO2 emitted from vehicle exhausts.

The bill requires ministers to set a target to reduce the amount of tiny particles, known as PM2.5, which are damaging to health.

Opposition parties tried to amend the bill to also include targets on NO2.

The move was defeated, but only after the presiding officer had to use her casting vote because of a tied vote by MSs.

In the chamber, Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell said legally-binding NO2 targets were “crucial for safeguarding human health in Wales”.

In 2018, Public Health Wales linked NO2 to more than 1,000 deaths a year in Wales.

The Senedd’s climate change committee has backed calls from environment charities for new targets on cutting NO2.

Instead, the government says it will set targets for other pollutants within six years, but it has not said which.

Ms James said the government did not yet have “the full suite of evidence necessary” for other pollutants.