Delays to clean air zones in English cities 'put wellbeing at risk'

Councils have put off plans for zones in Birmingham, Leeds and elsewhere owing to Covid

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Health experts have warned that delays to proposed clean air zones in cities including Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds pose a risk to the nation's wellbeing.

Clean air zones (CAZs) are areas in which drivers of polluting vehicles are charged to enter city centres in an effort to improve air quality. With air pollution at illegal levels in many locations for the past decade, causing thousands of deaths a year, local authorities nationwide had announced plans to introduce the zones.