CONSERVATIVES on Bradford Council have accused the authority’s Labour leadership of using “grossly inaccurate data” to persuade the Government of the need for clean air zone charges.

Under the scheme, commercial vehicles – including HGVs and taxis – that fail to meet certain emission standards will be charged a daily fee to enter the city.

Keighley Central Conservative councillor Mohammed Nazam says: “We have been arguing since day one that a class C clean air zone –which involves daily charges for local service providers – should be avoided if at all possible. The Labour council has repeatedly argued that the Government has left it no choice whatsoever but to implement a clean air zone that involves daily charges.

“However, the answer to a written parliamentary question submitted by Shipley MP Philip Davies – along with the behaviour of other councils – appears to fundamentally undermine this argument.” He said the answer stated it was Bradford Council that had identified the need for the clean air zone and the Government had accepted evidence put forward.

Another Keighley Central Tory councillor, Zafar Ali, said: “The council has persuaded the Government of the need for the charges on the basis of grossly inaccurate data and it needs to urgently rectify this.”

But Councillor Sarah Ferriby, the council’s portfolio holder for healthy people and places, refutes the claims and accuses the Conservative group of being “completely disingenuous”.

“After ten years of failing to tackle air pollution at a national level the Government has been forced by the Supreme Court to take action to meet legal limits across the UK that they should have achieved in 2010,” she said. “Because it did nothing, the Government is now passing the buck to local authorities.

“Because of the court action against the Government, it is now directing Bradford district to produce a plan which will meet legal limits for air quality within a very short timeframe – by using prescribed Government data and methodology that allows local authorities no other realistic option than implementing a clean air zone.

“When the council proposed to introduce electric bus routes, including routes from Keighley to Bradford, the Government refused. When the council proposed park and ride schemes, the Government refused. Most major cities across the UK have been directed to follow the same path as us.”