The government's grant scheme to help English councils tackle air pollution has seen its funding cut in half compared to last year.
A release published last week by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and first reported in the Guardian reveals that 12 councils will receive a total of £500,000 through the grant, which goes to a wide variety of projects from electric charging points to contaminant monitoring stations.
Last year the grant stood at £1m, while the funding for the 2011-12 grant was £3m. Leeds, London, Manchester and Southampton together received the lion's share of the funding.
In a landmark case last year, environmental law firm ClientEarth won a Supreme Court case that forced the government to publish strict plans to crack down on the UK's high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution.
Alan Andrews, a lawyer at ClientEarth, said the amount currently being spent by government on air pollution is inadequate. "The money currently on the table is peanuts when compared to the scale of Britain's air quality crisis and the costs it imposes on the NHS," he said in an emailed statement.
"Despite the Supreme Court ordering them to take immediate action the government is still trying to shirk responsibility by passing the problem down to local authorities while starving them of the funding they need to tackle it. George Osborne needs to make a major investment in clean public transport in towns and cities throughout the UK."
However a Defra spokeswoman insisted tackling air pollution is still a priority for the government, and said the cuts must be looked at in the context of the overall picture of how it is supporting action on air quality.
"Our air quality plans, published last year, clearly set out how we will improve the UK's air quality through a new programme of Clean Air Zones and national action," she said in a statement. "We also continue to investment [sic] in clean technologies - committing £2bn since 2011 - to create cleaner, healthier air for all."
ClientEarth last month warned the government that it would urgently seek further court action if present plans - under which it will take at least five years to clean up pollution in several cities including Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh - were not strengthened.
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