Andy Burnham has revealed what the next phase of Greater Manchester's clean air plan looks like as a key deadline looms.
Leaders have until next year to bring pollution in Greater Manchester down to legal limits set by the government under the mayor's 'investment-led, non-charging' clean air plan.
It replaced the controversial clean air zone, which would have charged some motorists for driving on the city's roads until it was cancelled amid a backlash in 2022.
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The new plan, approved earlier this year, should bring pollution down to 40.3 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide in one cubic metre of air. The 海角视频 legal limit is 40, but results under 40.4 are rounded down.
However, the World Health Organisation's recommended limit is just 10 - leading senior figures within Greater Manchester to say last week they 'are morally obligated to go further' than the government's 'pretty arbitrary line'.
Getting to said 'arbitrary line' will cost £64m, with £51m going to cleaner Bee Network buses, £8m for taxi drivers to upgrade their dirty cabs, and £5m to improve traffic flow in the city centre.
Now, the mayor has outlined the clean air plan's next phase.
"It's an all-electric public transport system by the end of the decade," he replied when asked how emissions will reduce after 2026.
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"That will take air pollution way below legal limits and that's what we're very focussed on. If you like the possibility of that is now within our reach, and just to have the country's first zero emission, integrated bus and tram system at street level, with the active travel infrastructure to support it is quite an exciting prospect."
Mr Burnham added he wants to clean air up with 'an incentive-based approach' by luring motorists out of their cars to the all-electric Bee Network.
He continued: "I'm trying to remove the rules that might stop people from using public transport. Hence the move we've made in August around the 9:30am rule for older people's and disabled people's bus passes."
His comments come after a series of minor changes to the clean air plan were approved last week, which bosses said were made because of a drop in pollution in some areas and technical issues in others.
Forecasts of pollution levels will be reassessed in the new year in the wake of the changes, the LDRS understands, meaning the expected level of 40.3 could change.