Bradford Clean Air Zone to remain in place for longer after botched bus upgrade
Although the CAZ has led to pollution levels falling in many areas of Bradford – there are still three areas where air pollution is above legal levels.
Last updated 16th Dec 2025
A BOTCHED scheme to retrofit polluting buses with greener engines is likely to have delayed the lifting of Bradford’s Clean Air Zone.
Although the CAZ, controversially introduced in 2022, has led to pollution levels falling in many areas of Bradford – there are still three areas where air pollution is above legal levels.
And a new report going before a Council committee on Tuesday evening suggests that a failed attempt to make buses more environmentally friendly may be behind the stubborn pollution levels in these areas.
The report into the progress of the Clean Air Zone will go before the Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee.
It details what criteria need to be met before Government will lift the Ministerial Direction, and allow the CAZ to be lifted, saying : “The Government has developed a Four State assessment towards the lifting the Ministerial Direction.
“As of 2025, the Council is in State 1 – progressing towards achieving compliance with legal limits for air quality.
“State 2 means legal limits have been achieved and State 3 means legal levels have been maintained.
“Legal levels need to be maintained for a period up to two years before the Government will remove the Ministerial Direction, which would allow the Council to remove the CAZ.”
It goes on to say while air pollution has been brought down to legal levels in 32 out of 35 problem areas of Bradford, they remained above legal levels at Shipley Airedale Road (near Barkerend Road), Manchester Road (near Mayo Avenue) and Manningham Lane (at the Queens Road Junction).
“The Council has worked with the Joint Air Quality Unit to identify the cause of ongoing exceedances. Through a comprehensive study by Bradford, it was determined that the failure of bus retrofits has had a significant impact on our ability to meet compliance.”
As previously reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, millions of pounds of Government money was spent on retrofitting buses in Bradford ahead of the introduction of the District’s Clean Air Zone.
But a Government report released last December revealed that this national retrofitting scheme has “not worked” – with the buses across the country failing to reduce pollution levels in the areas they operate.
Due to the failure of the programme, Bradford was awarded Government funding to introduce zero emission buses.
Referring to the botched national retrofit scheme, the report going to the Committee on Tuesday says: “The JAQU made an additional award of £8m towards zero emission buses in Bradford, to be used on routes where continuing exceedances occur.
“The Council presented a study to Government in 2025 that showed that legal limits for air quality could be achieved on Manchester Road and Manningham Lane if zero emission buses replaced diesel buses (including retrofitted) on these routes. The Government has now awarded Bradford £8m to support zero emission buses on these routes.”