With its hallowed halls, lush green lawns and picturesque dreaming spires, few foreigners would think the university city of Oxford is a particularly polluted place.

But as the traffic banks up along the main roads in the congested city centre, the smell of car fumes fills the air.

“It is Oxford, it’s a ford, it’s a place you cross the river,” local resident Hugh Warwick explains.

“It is therefore in a bit of a valley, it means pollution will collect here.”

World Health Organisation data released last year showed Oxford was one of 11 cities in the UK to breach the safe limits set for certain types of toxic particles.

In the face of community concern, the local council is promising to clean up the air by gradually banning petrol and diesel cars, trucks and taxis over a 15-year period from 2020.

By 2035, only electric vehicles will be allowed inside a zero-emissions zone and it’s hoped levels of nitrogen dioxide, much of which comes from cars, will have been slashed by 74 per cent on the city’s most polluted street.

“We think it will be the world’s first zero-emissions zone,” Oxford City Councillor John Tanner says.

“We’re responding to an immediate health challenge, that’s why we’re doing it.

“We happen to be the first, we are sure many other cities around the world will follow us and I hope Australia will very soon.”

The city is moving faster than the rest of the United Kingdom, which will stop the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040, and France, where carmakers are being encouraged by the government to build electric and hybrid vehicles.

Concerns about the pace of change

The plans are currently out for public consultation and many of the people we meet in Oxford enthusiastically support the idea.

“So long as they invest in good public transport to make it easier for everyone to get in, then it’s a really good idea,” says Oxfordshire local Sam Casey.

“The fumes are horrible and the health concerns are well known.”

But you don’t have to search too hard to find people with concerns about how quickly the zero-emissions zone is being phased in.

Some Oxford taxi drivers, for example, worry about the immediate cost and practicality of using electric cabs.

“At the moment you’re looking at £55,000 ($93,000) … that’s a big upfront cost,” says taxi driver Stephen Claridge.

“They’re talking about these new cabs that have got a range of 70 miles (112 kilometres) before they need recharging but if you get a long distance job over 70 miles you need a charging point somewhere.

“They’re going to have to bring the emissions zone into Oxford because the pollution is still too high … but until they get all the infrastructure rolled out across the country, it’s crazy.”

But city councillors are promising they will listen to the concerns of local businesses and build more charging stations.

They want to show the world that transitioning to electric cars is possible and they hope the process is relatively painless.

“It’s going to be an investment,” Mr Tanner says.

“But we are giving people plenty of warning so that next time they buy a vehicle they know it should be an electric one.

“Technology is changing very, very fast. This is going to be getting easier and easier.”

-ABC