Derby City Council have been working with central government to do further work on the issue that they identified with air quality.
Surveys have been carried out with cameras to capture information on the numbers of vehicles and types of vehicles including identifying their engine types. This has been used with information from various locations where we already do air quality monitoring and traffic count data around the city.
This information has been used to model the predicted air quality levels around the city to identify any predicted exceedance locations if we do nothing.
This work has identified one location in the city where there is a predicted exceedance of the legal EU Limit of NO2 if we take no action. No level of NO2 is safe, but we have to start by bringing down the levels at those locations where exceedance is predicted.
| Location | Level of NO2 in 2020 if we take no action |
|---|---|
| Stafford Street, near to its junction with Friar Gate | 47.4µg/m3 |
What we are doing
Derby City Council are already undertaking projects that will help support the improvement of air quality including investment in low emission transport options, including cycling and walking.
There are a number of projects were the Council have received grants for measures which support the overall aims of the Clean Air Zone project. These include:
- Retro-fitting of Council’s HGV fleet with emissions reduction technology.
A project to convert the exhaust cleaning systems of Council Heavy Goods Vehicles e.g. bin lorries, so that they have lower emissions from their exhausts. - Cleaner taxis research and engagement programme.
A project being carried out in conjunction with the hackney carriage trade to look at the way that hackney carriages are driven in the city. The purpose of this project is to see how savings can be made using electric and range-extended hackney carriages. This is required in order to assess whether a hackney carriage leasing business could be developed i.e. where taxi drivers could lease an electric vehicle rather than having to spend the large sum of money on purchasing one. - Early Measures funding for Cleaner Taxis
To investigate other ways to encourage taxi drivers to use low emission vehicles, for example by developing two electric vehicle hubs for hackney carriages in the city centre and changes in taxi licensing policies to help lower emissions across the taxi.data collected under the CAZ project shows that taxis and private hire vehicles are often very old and therefore have higher emissions than many other vehicles. Taxis also drive a lot of miles in and around Derby, adding to the problem. - OLEV Go Ultra Low City
(in conjunction with Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils) to promote the use of electric and hybrid vehicles across the region. Including the provision of electric vehicle charging hubs in various public car parks in Derby. - Air quality awareness and engagement campaigns, including National Clean Air Day.