Guildford<\/a> Borough Council\u2019s Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered a report into measures to bring down harmful air pollution levels in the town.<\/p>\nConsultant Dr Margarethe Theseira, who spoke to councillors, had been commissioned to carry out a study into the feasibility of introducing a clean air zone (CAZ) in Guildford.<\/p>\n
However, the report suggested alternative measures such as targeted measures in pollution hotspots and incentives for active travel instead of a blanket clean air zone, which it warned could incur significant costs.<\/p>\n
Dr Theseira told councillors: \u201cThe reason a clean air zone or low emission zone is not proportionate to local need is that the air quality is very much concentrated on one site, at Park Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so it made a broader scheme disproportionate in scale and cost. There are alternative measures you can do to improve air quality at Park Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Theseira added that implementing a CAZ would not be cheap, and that the cost of operating equivalent schemes could run into millions of pounds per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you compare yourselves to Bath, it was around \u00a310 million for Bath to set up its clean air zone – and it cost \u00a32 million in operational costs per year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The report noted that Park Street in the town centre saw especially high pollution levels as the vehicles are forced to travel uphill before being held at traffic lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s causing the problem,\u201d Dr Theseira said. \u201cIt isn\u2019t just the traffic lights, it\u2019s the slope that approaches that junction that causes more emissions than you may expect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Options for targeted interventions to improve air quality in this area could include traffic management, or engineering solutions such as assisted ventilation in relevant buildings, according to the report.<\/p>\n
Clean air zones and low emission zones have become more common in cities and towns across the country over the past half decade.<\/p>\n
Some schemes, such as London\u2019s Ultra Low Emission Zone, make high-polluting vehicles pay a fee to drive within their boundaries, while others, such as that in Derby opt for traffic control measures instead of charges.<\/p>\n
Research conducted for the study found that only 68 per cent of cars registered in Guildford meet London ULEZ standards – which drops to 57 per cent among vans.<\/p>\n
But the report ultimately deemed that a clean air zone would not be an \u201cappropriate response\u201d given the likely high operating costs and uncertain revenue it would entail.<\/p>\n
It adds: \u201cThis is further exacerbated by the level of uncertainty over future updates of vehicles given changes in direction from recent government policy, and global geo-political concerns potentially impacting on fuel price and car production.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, alternative measures such as incentives for active travel, a review of council fleet emission standards and further analysis of park and ride schemes were floated.<\/p>\n
Committee members considered the recommendations, which are expected to be presented to the council executive for a final decision in due course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The town’s air quality issue is focused on one busy street Park Street, Guildford (Image: Google Maps) A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1034239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,190358,190361,70,760,16,15],"class_list":["post-1034238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-guildford","tag-guildford-borough-council","tag-science","tag-traffic-and-travel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Park](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_park-st-guildford.png\")
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