Government must publish clean air plans before election

The High Court has thwarted government attempts to delay the publication of its plans to tackle illegal air pollution until after the general election.

The government must now publish its draft plans on May 9th with the final plan published in July.

The draft plans were due to be published on 24th April 217, but the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) applied to postpone publication of the draft clean air plan until after the election to comply with purdah rules.

However, Mr Justice Garnham rejected the government’s argument that publication of the plans would drop a “controversial bomb” into both the local and national election campaigns.

The plans are in response to a High Court ruling last year that the government’s air quality strategy to meet EU-mandated air quality limits was inadequate and had be improved.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: "We will consider the judgment and decide what we do next."