Fourteen Months on Have the Pledges in the 2023 Local Labour Manifesto Been Honoured?

Written by Adrian Hill

My first impression of Brighton & Hove Labour Party’s 2023 local manifesto looked promising in terms of improving air quality. Strong pledges included statements such as “bring an end to noisy and polluting diesel vehicles” and creating a “healthy environment”. Listening to the 2023 election hustings Labour councillors also promised to make air quality a top priority.

So, fourteen months later, have the Labour Party prioritised clean air, is there any improvement and have these pledges been honoured?

Well the situation is not so rosy; while other cities have seen large improvements, the pollution in our city has largely stagnated. Our most advanced air pollution monitor now tells us that we have some of the worst particulate pollution levels in the UK. On our overly congested and busy narrow roads, nitrogen dioxide sensors tell us we suffer some of the worst pollution in the country which violates the World Health Organisation guidelines by more than four times!

This doesn’t look good but our city has many unused tools in its tool belt. So, what action is being taken to mitigate this very serious health related issue?

Work is being taken to upgrade the monitoring network. Better monitoring can provide residents with additional information about when and where the pollution is most harmful and helps vulnerable people, such as those with respiratory illnesses and young children, to avoid the worst pollution and reduce their exposure levels. It looks likely we will see this soon but the project has been delayed and more importantly it won’t actively lower pollution.

There have been some improvements that should reduce emissions. The biggest improvement is how the council helped the private bus companies apply and secure funding from central government. Some of the local buses have now been upgraded to diesel Euro 6 which are ULEZ compliant and emit lower levels of harmful pollution.

However even in our small bus only ULEZ zone, 10 to 20% of the buses still don’t meet these ULEZ standards and the private bus companies are a long way away from moving all the buses in Brighton to the cleanest diesel vehicles. I would prefer the bus companies to upgrade the rest of their fleet to electric buses instead of diesel. Or alternatively move to trams which are far more efficient compared to electric buses and don’t emit brake, road or tyre particulate pollution.

The most effective and most meaningful way to reduce harmful Nitrogen Dioxide pollution from vehicles is to declare a Clean Air Zone and this should be the priority if providing clean air really is a serious intention. A Clean Air Zone would allow our council to make an application for a slice of the £900 million in government funding to help low income drivers switch to cleaner vehicles and alternative transport. A Clean Air Zone would help regulate the most polluting vehicles and help those whose health has been harmed by pollution. The worst off in our society are surely those with poor health.

With such strong words in Labour’s 2023 manifesto and the promise to “bring an end to noisy and polluting diesel vehicles” it came as a shock when Cllr Muten, chair of the transport committee, ruled out a Clean Air Zone soon after taking control of the Transport committee. It would have been much fairer for Labour to have admitted their intentions before the election; especially as Cllr Miller specifically told a hustings in 2023 that a Clean Air Zone would remain an option.

Brighton & Hove Labour have been supportive of interventions that support personal freedoms. However one person’s freedom shouldn’t curtail another person’s freedom. The freedom to pollute curtails a more fundamental right; that to live in a healthy environment.

The government somewhat listened to air quality professionals and strengthened the regulations around Smoke Control Areas in 2021 and 2022. These areas are the only meaningful intervention available to regulate excessive smoke from wood and coal fires. Unfortunately Labour blocked expanding the area in 2022 leaving the majority of the city unprotected. Cllr Rowkins, head of the Environment committee, said there is “little point in expanding” the existing small area reiterating Labour’s continued intention to rule out the most effective clean air initiatives. Incredibly in 2023 Cllr Rowkins blamed the Green Party for not taking action when it was Labour who used their veto powers to block improvements. Labour’s Cllr Appich went one step further in the wrong direction when she told the committee that “people should be able to burn what they want”; this is a potentially illegal activity and the comments were extremely disappointing.

Air pollution at the levels Brighton & Hove experience are a direct cause of asthma, heart disease, cancer and many other diseases.

Cllr Muten has consistently told us that Labour have been developing and implementing a plan with “targeted interventions” and a “data led approach”. Cllr Rowkins has told his committee he “believes in preventative healthcare” and air pollution needs to be “treated as a priority”. These words sound good but after fourteen months without any meaningful action our patience and trust is waning. We need clean air to be made a priority like Labour promised.

Despite their words Labour seem to support the right to pollute over the right to a healthy environment.

In order to regain our trust, the Brighton & Hove Labour Party must be more explicit and detail exactly how and when action on air quality will be taken and how they will end polluting diesel in our city. Failure to act on air pollution will cause ill health.

An election is a great time to renew their pledges and we call on Labour to tell us exactly how they will bring an end to polluting diesel in the city.

The Labour controlled council must start implementing the most effective interventions such as emission zones and smoke control areas so that we can indeed experience a healthy environment.