Pollution back at illegal levels on former ‘zero-emissions street’ in London

Traffic on Beech Street in 2019, before the scheme began. The tunnel, from which fumes cannot disperse easily, has been a pollution hotspot for years. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The ending of the UK’s first “zero-emissions street” scheme has led to a return to illegal pollution levels beside one of the country’s biggest cultural centres.

Pollution levels had plummeted on Beech Street in London, which runs past the Barbican centre, after the City of London Corporation introduced an experimental traffic order restricting it to electric vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians.