in the UK outside of London
The Welsh Government has told the High Court it will work on new plans to tackle high levels of air pollution.
Environmental campaign group ClientEarth went to court claiming a failure to address nitrogen dioxide levels in towns and cities which break EU law.
Hafodrynys Road near Crumlin is the UK’s most polluted road outside of London.
Barrister for the Welsh Government, Jonathan Moffett QC, told a court hearing on January 25 that ministers would work with ClientEarth to agree a legally-binding “consent order”.
ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: “Welsh ministers have admitted in court that their inaction on air pollution was unlawful.
“It’s incredibly disappointing that we had to drag them to court to get them to admit this and to commit to action to stop people in Wales having to breathe dirty air.
“People across Wales have been breathing illegal levels of air pollution for years and we hope the Welsh Government will waste no time now in committing to strong and decisive action to cleaning it up.”
The Welsh Government must now come up with a plan to meet legal limits of air pollution in Wales as soon as possible.
The UK Government has today, February 21, lost a third case brought against it by ClientEarth.
In a ruling handed down at the High Court in London this morning, Judge Mr Justice Garnham declared the government’s failure to require action from 45 local authorities with illegal levels of air pollution in their area unlawful.
He ordered ministers to require local authorities to investigate and identify measures to tackle illegal levels of pollution in 33 towns and cities as soon as possible – as 12 of the 45 are projected to have legal levels by the end of 2018.
Today’s result against the UK Government means that Welsh Ministers will have to produce a draft plan by April 30 and a final plan by July 31 this year.
Local air pollution will gradually decrease as more efficient, cleaner engines are developed and electric vehicles become more widespread. However, building houses on a massive scale on our green fields, far from people’s workplaces, will lead to these gains being thrown away. I believe that pollution levels may actually increase.
The Welsh Assembly is determined to pursue this house building strategy and has a record of over ruling objections from the public and our locally elected councillors when they reject planning applications. Personally I do not trust Cardiff to make a good decision, this is based on experience of how the Assembly has worked since it was set up.