environment

Lille joins Paris in vehicle ban amid pollution spike

Source: CF

Pollution levels in Paris and Lille have been judged as too high for at least three consecutive days

The Nord city of Lille (Hauts-de-France) has joined Paris to ban the most polluting vehicles from its roads today (Wednesday February 27) for the first time ever, due to a spike in levels of fine particle pollution.

The restrictions apply to vehicles that have a Crit’Air rating of 4 or 5, or that are unclassified. Only cars with a rating of 0, 1 and 3 are permitted. Crit’Air clean air stickers are legally required in some cities in France, to identify a vehicle’s emission levels.

This is the first time Lille has taken the step to ban the most polluting cars, on the third consecutive day of a breach of the permitted threshold for fine particle pollution.

The fine particles in question are known as PM10, and are deemed to be among the most harmful to human respiratory health.

In the Ile-de-France area, the restrictions apply specifically to the interior of the A86 motorway. Between the hours of 5h30 and midnight, only vehicles with a Crit’Air rating of 0-3 are allowed.

In Lille, the restrictions are covering around a dozen communes, including the centre of town.

The restrictions were put in place in Paris on Tuesday this week, after air quality monitoring network Airparif advised that the acceptable threshold for fine particles had been breached for three days in a row.

Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said that she would call to apply such restrictions once a “spike” in pollution had been identified, despite criticism from government transport aide Christophe Najdovski that the State had not taken enough preventative measures.

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