OXFORD City Council has joined other councils across England in criticising the government's new clean air plan for not going far enough fast enough to deal with the 'public crisis'. 

Council leader Bob Price and board member for environment John Tanner joined with leaders from Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester and Southampton, along with both the Mayor of Liverpool and the newly elected metro-Mayor of Liverpool City Region, to urge the Secretary of State for environment Michael Gove to do more.

Gove's clean air plan, published yesterday, confirms the sale of all diesel and petrol vehicles will be banned in the UK by 2040.

However councils say it stops far short of the action needed now to stop thousands of people's lives being cut short every year by poisonous emissions of nitrogen dioxide.

The government stopped short of actually mandating clean air zones in cities, which many councils insist are needed, and does not include a diesel scrappage scheme for those who bought diesel cars in good faith.

Instead Mr Gove yesterday threw £255m at the problem leaving councils to to come up with ‘imaginative solutions’ to such pollution problems and to take the rap from opponents.

The letter to Mr Gove says: "If the evidence shows that the most effective means of improving air quality quickly is through a charging clean air zone, the government should mandate this rather than insisting it is a choice for local government."

The councils are demanding a new Clean Air Act that would encompass the range of measures, especially a national framework, within which they could work.

They are also sceptical of Mr Gove's claims that 'surgical interventions' focussed on hotspots and individual roads will help, arguing they could worsen traffic and congestion and displace the problem elsewhere.

John Tanner said: "Today we have joined leaders from cities across the UK in calling for the Government to take more action to tackle air pollution. Oxford cannot wait until 2040 for clean air; we need urgent action now.

"We are leading on tackling air quality in Oxford, but we are anxious to work with the Government to tackle this public health emergency more strategically. The Government’s decision to push responsibility for air quality to local authorities risks a patchwork approach across the UK."

City councillor Tom Hayes also said the ban will not come soon enough for those already suffering. 

The Labour councillor said yesterday that his constituents living in the most polluted street in Oxford – St Clements – deserved to stop being poisoned sooner.

Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council are currently funding a £30,000 study into the possibility of creating a zero-emissions zone in the city centre by 2020.

The paper, due to be published next month, may or may not recommend creating the zone.

If it is recommended, the Conservative-led county council would have the ultimate powers to enforce new road rules, but it has previously been criticised for not taking tough enough action to tackle pollution.

The Labour-led city council, meanwhile, which took the lead on creating a low-emissions zone in Oxford city centre in 2014 and is now rolling out electric car charging points across the city, asked the government to give it new powers to take the lead on pollution.

Now, it seems the Government has decided to throw money at the problem rather than take a hands-on approach.

Mr Hayes told the Oxford Mail: “I am delighted we are going to have clean air but I am really not happy we are going to have to wait 23 years when we have already suffered seven years of illegal pollution.”

Asked when a ban should come in, he said: “I think the government to look at examples of best practice and partnership working, like the fact our councils are looking at creating a zero emissions zone by 2020.

“My constituents are worried about developing serious health problems because of the dirty air they are breathing and they are not seeing the county council taking action.”

The county’s Conservative cabinet member for environment Yvonne Constance said ‘in terms of ambition’ she was sure the government’s ban plan was ‘the right direction’, but added: “We don’t know how feasible it really is and if it is going to be achievable’.

She said the county did not currently have a ‘wish list’ of clean air projects for which it could ask for a share of the new government funding, but she said she would discuss how the council could use the money before making a bid for some of it.