News: Brighton and Hove City Council leader Jason Kitcat

Brighton & Hove’s first ‘low emission zone’ has officially launched – stretching along the main corridor from The Old Steine as far as Palmeira Square.

Air pollution is an invisible killer. It’s linked to lung problems, heart failure and premature deaths – and recently the World Health Organisation also declared it to be carcinogenic. In the UK alone some 29,000 people every year die because of bad air.

However working in partnership with bus and taxi companies we’ve developed a Low Emission Zone scheme that is set to make a real difference.

Bus companies large and small are playing their part in making public transport cleaner. Brighton & Hove Buses has invested £6m in a raft of hybrid buses running across the city, cutting emissions and fuel bills. Meanwhile Cuckmere Buses, a small company run by volunteers, has just spent £90,000 on a new clean bus.

The benefits stretch far and wide across the city. Nearly every single bus in Brighton & Hove passes through the zone – so as well as cleaning up the air in town, it also means less pollution for anyone living, working or playing near a bus route across the city.

Taxi drivers are also doing their bit by turning off their engines while stationary at taxi ranks. This builds on our successful joint project fitting at least 25 taxis with cleaner exhaust technology to slash emissions.

In some of our city centre hotspots, traffic fumes have been double the European and English legal limits for decades. Whether by making public transport, cycling and walking safer and more reliable, or by working with partners like the bus company to reduce emissions, the only way to clean up the air we all breathe is to reduce the number of polluting vehicles on our streets.