Well-maintained vehicles should produce very little smoke, except when they are starting up, accelerating hard, or climbing steep hills. However, some vehicles emit dense plumes of smoke, and may not meet legal emissions standards, they may be Dirty Diesels! Dirty Diesels cause air pollution, can be a health hazard and are bad for the environment.

The Cleaner Vehicles Campaign is a partnership air quality initiative between the ten Greater Manchester and Warrington Local Authorities.

The campaign aims to:

• Reduce the number of heavily polluting vehicles across the Greater Manchester and Warrington area
• Increase public awareness of the harmful effects of badly polluting vehicles on the environment and air quality from the high levels of pollutants emitted by vehicles that are not properly tuned
• To take action against gross polluters

To report a Dirty Diesel you just need to provide us with as much detail as possible about the vehicle and where you saw it - you can remain anonymous if you wish. You can use the online form or the contact details at the bottom of this page.

Report a Dirty Diesel

Complaints about excessive or smoky emissions from commercial vehicles such as lorries, buses, coaches, will be passed to the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) the Government agency responsible for controlling exhaust emissions from such vehicles. If the report is of a smoky taxi then the complaint will be referred to our Licensing Section.

If you see the Dirty Diesel again after reporting it and it appears that it is still emitting excessive amounts of smoke you can make a further complaint to us. We will then notify the relevant enforcement authority to let them know that the problem has not been solved and give them the opportunity to take further action.