Motorists face charges of up to £690 a year to park near their homes in an effort to cut pollution.
A London borough is planning to drive up fees for permits in controlled parking zones to what is believed to be the most expensive in the UK.
Permits for the most polluting cars will cost up to £540 in areas of Merton covered by round-the-clock controlled parking zones in addition to the existing £150 charge for all diesel vehicles and older petrol cars. All annual visitors’ permits will increase to £690.

Carbon emissions from passenger cars across Britain have fallen by just 1% since 2011, despite a steep rise in the sale of electric and hybrid vehicles, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.
The National Audit Office said the popularity of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and an increase in road traffic were among factors that have cancelled out expected reductions from low-emission car sales.
Its report concludes that the government has a long way to go to achieve its target for almost all cars to emit no carbon by 2050.
Ministers have announced plans to restrict the sale of new cars that are powered solely by petrol or diesel by 2030 in an effort to cut emissions from the 67.9m tonnes of CO2 equivalent emitted by cars in 2018 – nearly a fifth of the UK’s total emissions. From 2035, only zero-emission cars will be sold.
In a 2013 strategy paper, the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) forecast that carbon emissions from cars would fall by 10 million tonnes between 2010 and 2020.
Auditors examined data from the Department for Transport and found that average emissions from new cars fell by 13% between 2011 and 2016 but increased by 6% between 2016 and 2019.

Cycling UK has upped the pressure on “irrational” opposition of cycling schemes with the announcement that it will take legal action over West Sussex County Council’s decision to remove a popular cycle lane introduced during the lockdown.

The charity applied for a judicial review on Wednesday against the removal of the Upper Shoreham Road scheme, which had been well received, in particular by parents of local schools and nurseries. Evidence collected showed that over 30,000 bicycle journeys were made on the route during its short tenure; the less than two months spanning September 25th to November 24th.
What’s more, the cycling charity has referred the council to its own evidence that there was no negative impact on journey times, nor air quality as a result of the installation, which was primarily made up of wands segregating cyclists from the bulk of the traffic.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and its local councils have approved the design of ten Active Neighbourhood schemes (also known as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods) across the Greater Manchester city region.
The project involves design and engineering agents Arup and active travel organisation Sustrans working closely with residents and other stakeholders to design an Active Neighbourhood scheme in each of the Greater Manchester local authority areas.

A cross party group of politicians in Wales have constructed a framework active travel manifesto that it has urged political parties to consider adopting ahead of this May’s local elections.
The Senedd Cross Party Group on the Active Travel Act has published the 11 point proposal document, which is guided by the latest evidence to support a wide range of issues. With the Senedd elections due on May 6th the parties have little time to integrate the policy ideas into their bid to win votes from the public.

Matthew Taylor
Tue 23 Feb 2021
The climate emergency is already hitting “worst case scenario” levels that if left unchecked will lead to the collapse of ecosystems, with dire consequences for humanity, according to the chief executive of the Environment Agency.
Warning that this is not “science fiction”, Sir James Bevan said on Tuesday that in recent years several of the “reasonable worst case scenarios” had happened in the UK, with more extreme weather and flooding. And he urged politicians to take action to reduce emissions and adapt to the “inevitable” impacts of the climate emergency.

Motorists face charges of up to £690 a year to park near their homes in an effort to cut pollution.
A London borough is planning to drive up fees for permits in controlled parking zones to what is believed to be the most expensive in the UK.
Permits for the most polluting cars will cost up to £540 in areas of Merton covered by round-the-clock controlled parking zones in addition to the existing £150 charge for all diesel vehicles and older petrol cars. All annual visitors’ permits will increase to £690.