BRADFORD Council's Leader has joined leaders and mayors from across the UK at a national summit to promote clean air.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe attended the event in London, co-hosted by the Mayor of London, UK100 and IPPR, earlier today.

Fifteen cities and regions were represented, including Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool City Region, Liverpool City Council, London, Oxford, Newcastle, Sheffield City Region, Southampton and the West Midlands City Region.

Polly Billington, Director of UK100, says: “Air pollution is a growing national menace. It is not confined only to big cities but damages the health and well-being of people throughout the UK. It is also a shared responsibility between national and local government.

“Having Cllr Hinchcliffe here along with the other local leaders and mayors means we are able to collectively call for urgent action to clean up our air. This summit helps to put air pollution front and centre in the minds of those making policy and controlling budgets: local leaders stand as allies with national decision-makers who share their determination, and with more powers and resources will be able to do more.

“City leaders have the ambition to tackle this public health crisis and seize the economic opportunity there is in shifting to cleaner, smarter ways of moving around our cities, towns and regions.

“Seeing them all here today sharing ideas and discussing their own local successes in the battle against air pollution has been empowering and will go a long way to cleaning up the air in Bradford and our air nationally in the coming months and years.”

Cllr Hinchcliffe said: “Bradford has ongoing health research which demonstrates the links between air pollution, predominantly caused by vehicle emissions, and health problems via the Born In Bradford programme.

“Through the Council’s close links with health researchers, we have the evidence base to support making air quality improvement a Council priority. For this reason we have developed a Low Emission Strategy as early as possible to secure improvement and health benefits for our population.

“It is important that we continue to work collaboratively with other West Yorkshire authorities to tackle air quality issues across the region, to build on the work that has already taken place and to ensure for current and future generations that Bradford is a great place to live, work and invest."