London Mayor ‘should pay Britain’s pollution fines’

The Mayor of London should have to pay multi-million-pound fines for breaches of EU air quality rules, MPs were told today.

Town hall chiefs from the regions say the capital should meet the cost as most pollution hotspots are located in it.

Environment minister Jim Fitzpatrick told the Commons environmental audit committee that council bosses raised the issue at a meeting late last year.

They argued that if Britain were fined because of London's inability to tackle pollution levels, their communities should not suffer funding cutbacks.

Mr Fitzpatrick told the MPs: "The follow-on question was, could we then transfer any fine to UK Plc to whoever happened to be Mayor of London?. This is not an attack on Mayor [Boris] Johnson. I don't know if there is a legal technical answer to that."

He stressed that ultimately the Government would have to pay.

Mr Fitzpatrick was criticised for the Government's failure to do more to clean up the air, particularly in the capital where emissions levels are being breached in a series of areas.

New EU limits on nitrogen dioxide pollution came into force last month and all countries have to show how they will meet them by 2015, or face fines. Meanwhile, Britain is seeking permission to avoid having to meet limits for particulate pollution by next year.