CAZ Sheffield: Charity volunteer says charges take money from work with vulnerable families
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Rob Reiss said at a meeting of Sheffield City Council’s transport, regeneration and climate change committee that he volunteers for several charities supporting vulnerable people including the Archer Project, S6 Foodbank, the Philadelphia Church and The Besom.
He told councillors: “They require vans to conduct their vital work within this city. The Clean Air Zone will require these charities and many like them across this city to spend £10 a day to continue their work or spend their own money on new vehicles because the grant doesn’t go far enough.”
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Hide AdMr Reiss said that buying a secondhand van of an emissions standard to avoid the CAZ charge costs around £13,000 but a council grant will only cover £3-4,000 of that cost.
He said that £10 would cover the cost of a food parcel to help feed a vulnerable family for a week: “It doesn’t take much maths to work out that 900 families could be fed with the money going on this van.
Challenges
“Does the committee think that this is a good use of public donations to these charities and were these charities considered when this scheme was designed?”
Committee chair Coun Mazher Iqbal thanked charities and volunteers working for them which have have risen to the challenges of helping people during the pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis.
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Hide AdCoun Iqbal added that the council needs to remove the equivalent of 17,500 polluting vehicles from the roads to improve air quality but it only has the cash to support the cost of 2,500 new vehicles, which is inadequate.
He said there are a number of exemptions to the charge that the council can make and council officers are looking at how to help foodbanks and charities.
Anti-CAZ campaigner Diane Cross also asked for confirmation of how many deaths each year are caused by air pollution. She said she had heard figures of 250 and 500 but wanted to know where they came from.
Coun Iqbal said that because the city has illegally high air pollution levels, the air is “poisonous and does kill people” but could not supply figures.