THE government suffered a third High Court defeat in three years today over its plans to tackle illegal levels of air pollution.

Mr Justice Garnham ruled that the government’s failure to require action from 45 local authorities with air pollution exceeding legal limits was “unlawful.”

He ordered ministers to require 33 of the authorities to investigate and identify measures to tackle air pollution as soon as possible, since just 12 of the 45 are projected to have legal levels by the end of this year.