More than 1,000 Clean Air Zone signs peppered around Greater Manchester will have to be altered with stickers after the scheme was paused.

A firm called McCann has already been contracted by transport bosses to undertake the arduous yet necessary job of amending 1,194 signs which wrongly state the scheme to charge high-emission vehicles will start on May 30.

However, when asked by the Manchester Evening News Clean Air Greater Manchester said a cost for the job to plaster over a section of the signage, due to start ‘in the coming weeks’, had yet to be agreed.

READ MORE:Andy Burnham faces furious crowd as he is grilled over ‘anti-democratic’ Clean Air Zone

It’s also as yet unclear whether the stickers will feature an alternative date (a risky strategy), a message, an image or just be blank to ‘erase’ the date.

Daily charges for HGVs, buses, non-Greater Manchester licensed taxis and private hire vehicles had been due to start on May 30.

Greater Manchester-licensed taxis and private hire vehicles, meanwhile, would have been liable from June 2023.

However, amid concerns over financial hardship for drivers and global supply chain issues, the government agreed to postpone the deadline from 2024 to 2026 for Greater Manchester to lower pollution levels to legal limits, buying time for its architects to review their initial plans.

A ‘substantially different’ scheme is now expected to be revealed by July.

But many elements of the Clean Air Zone were already underway, including the installation of 1,309 signs, 1,194 of which reference the launch date of May 30 2022 – a date now rendered defunct.

A spokesman said: “Work is ongoing between TfGM and its contractor to finalize the program costs for the sticker on the affected Clean Air Zone signs. This work is due to start in the coming weeks. ”

Meanwhile, according to a report published ahead of a meeting on Monday of Greater Manchester’s clean air leaders to discuss the CAZ next week, 406 of the planned 870 Automatic Number Plate Recognition Cameras have also been installed.

As CAZ planners return to the drawing board, these cameras will be used for ‘data capture’ to ‘allow the Greater Manchester authorities to better understand vehicle fleet currently in operation, and their associated emissions.’

They will also observe how vehicle fleets have changed over the course of the project, and if Covid-19 has altered traffic cycles.

Where cameras are positioned next to air quality monitors, it’s hoped they will inform a developing picture of how certain traffic impacts on pollution levels.

The report also updates members on the government’s withdrawal of a legal direction requiring Greater Manchester to implement a charging category C Clean Air Zone.

Greater Manchester’s 10 authorities now have until July 2022 to develop a new plan.

Applications for funding for light goods vehicles, minibuses, taxis and private hire vehicles have been paused.

HGV and bus funding remains open to support people to upgrade, while HGV funding for small businesses is open from February 28.

A Clean Air Greater Manchester spokesman said: “Greater Manchester remains committed to cleaning up the air its residents breathe – but in a way that helps people make the change and does not put jobs, livelihoods and businesses at risk.

“High levels of air pollution from road traffic have a major impact on people’s health across Greater Manchester.

“Poor air quality contributes to nearly 1,200 premature deaths in Greater Manchester every year and is increasingly seen as a contributor to breathing problems – like asthma – heart disease and some cancers.”

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