Sheffield City Council has announced plans to end a scheme that helps Sheffield residents afford the upgrade to cleaner vehicles.
The Clean Air Financial Assistance Support Scheme was put into place to ease drivers into the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) that took effect in 2023. Since then, the council revealed it has paid out £6.9m in grant support and helped replace 1,754 vehicles (BBC).
The authority has made clear the financial assistance was never intended to be available permanently and will now close in May.
Coun Ben Miskell, chair of the transport, regeneration and climate policy committee, said he wanted to “thank those who have taken the time to apply and upgrade or replace their polluting vehicles to cleaner ones”.
He declared future funding would focus on air quality improvements such as moving buses to electric energy.
Ben Deegan, a primary school teacher from Crookes, Sheffield has recently purchased a new car and said: “Electric cars are still not a viable option for the common man.
“For the price of a relatively cheap electric vehicle, you can get a better value and better made petrol or diesel car, especially on the second hand market.”
Opposition to the scheme came mainly from businesses who feared customers would be swayed from buying new vehicles and costs would increase.
Ben Deegan added: “For people to make the jump from petrol or diesel to electric vehicles, there needs to be a financial bridge to make the purchase achievable.”