A NEW park and ride scheme to reduce traffic into the city centre is one of a number of possible schemes proposed by Bradford Council to improve air quality.

An area of Council owned land at Staithgate Lane is the most likely site of the car park, and an electric bus could be used to transport people into the city centre.

The proposal was one of several discussed at a meeting of Bradford Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee last week, when officers were discussing what the Council is doing to reduce harmful emissions.

Neill Morrison Energy and Low Carbon Project Manager at the Council, said: “The Council has been looking at a park and ride scheme, we’ve been looking at several sites. A Council owned site on Staithgate Lane is one likely site.

“This is the one we’ve been looking at - it is the most deliverable site.”

Bradford Council to develop plan for air quality

Councillor Ralph Berry (Lab, Wibsey) said a similar scheme to Leeds United’s grounds worked well, with buses that ran every 10 minutes reducing traffic on the city’s busy roads/

He added: “This would let people get on a bus at Staithgate Lane and reduce the amount of damaging emissions produced by cars. People would come off the M606 and get right onto a park and ride. It would get people off Manchester Road - that road is a nightmare.”

Last year Bradford Council was given a “ministerial direction” to reduce the dangerous, and illegal, levels of air pollution in several areas of the district.

At the meeting, held in City Hall last Wednesday, members were given updates on the clean air plan. It followed a discussion on what was being done to tackle the climate emergency declared by the Council.

Other proposals include “no idling” zones outside schools, grants to taxi drivers to convert their vehicles to clean energy and the installation of 20 electric charging points for taxis. The first is being installed in Vicar Lane.

Mr Morrison said: “We need to build these and encourage taxi drivers to operate either electric cars or hybrid cars.”

He said the council would also encourage parents to car share during the school run as a way of reducing the amount of cars passing near to the district’s schools.

And Councillors were told that the Government had so far been “impressed” with the work Bradford was doing to try to bring air pollution in the district down.

The Council will produce its outline business case for its Air Quality Plan by the end of October. That will then go out to public consultation before the full plan is handed to the government.