The government has rejected a council plan for tackling high levels of air pollution on a North Staffordshire road without restricting traffic.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council were told in 2018 to come up with proposals for dealing with the illegally high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on Basford Bank, close to the boundary between the two areas.

The authorities came up with a proposal for the city council to purchase 10 homes in the affected area, as an alternative to controversial plans for a bus gate on Etruria Road, which would see most Newcastle-bound traffic banned during rush hour.

Under the councils' plan, the homes would have been left vacant to prevent residents being exposed to high levels of NO2, which is emitted in car exhaust and can cause respiratory problems.

But more than a year after submitting their business case for the scheme, the councils have now been told that the government does not support the idea.

The councils are now considering what to do next. It is unclear whether the government's decision means the bus gate scheme will now have to be implemented, and if so, when this would have to be done.

A spokesperson for the city council said: "In September 2024, the city and borough councils submitted a full business case to government for a scheme which would tackle, in the shortest possible time and at best value, the exposure to nitrogen dioxide concentrations on Etruria Road at Basford Bank.

"After over a year's delay, we have recently heard back from government that they do not support the plan we submitted. We are disappointed by this decision and are currently considering options and next steps."

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The city and borough councils were among a number of authorities issued with a 2018 ministerial direction, which ordered them to deal with air pollution hotspots.

By 2021, both councils, along with Staffordshire County Council, had agreed on the bus gate scheme, which would ban all Newcastle-bound traffic apart from buses, taxis and emergency vehicles from a section of Etruria Road during the morning and evening peak periods.

But the scheme has always been controversial among local residents, who feared it would simply push traffic onto 'rat run' residential streets, and businesses in the area, who believed it would drive away customers. In 2024 the government gave the councils permission to develop their alternative proposal.

The government says it is continuing to discuss the issue with the city council, and is seeking to agree a plan to tackle the NO2 levels as soon as possible.