The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced a plan to ban the worst-polluting lorries and coaches from the French capital amid rising concern about its poor air quality.

The ban would come into force from July in all areas inside the Périphérique, the circular road that rings Paris, Ms Hidalgo told the newspaper Le Monde in an interview published on Wednesday.

She will present the measures in 12 days to the municipal council, which is expected to adopt them.

Spikes in pollution have been worrying residents for years. Last March, the authorities made public transport free for three days to reduce severe smog caused by unusually warm weather. According to some reports, pollution in the city centre reduces the average life expectancy of Parisians by six months.

Speed limits have also been reduced on the Périphérique to limit pollution, but Ms Hidalgo said “tougher measures” were needed because pollution had become a major public health issue.

“I’m not prepared to negotiate when it comes to the health of Parisians,” she said.

She added that all vehicles causing high pollution would be banned from Paris in 2016, but did not specify what the emission threshold would be.

“As nearly 200 European cities have already done, we’re going to introduce a low-emission zone where we will gradually ban vehicles that cause pollution, both diesel and petrol,” Ms Hidalgo told Le Monde.

Her announcement came as the government launched a 150 million euro (£112 million) plan to encourage the use of electric cars by installing 16,000 new recharging points in the next four years.

Last month the mayor announced that diesel vehicles would be removed from the city by 2020, while the city’s historic centre would become “semi-pedestrianised” within the next few years. She also said space allotted to cycle lanes would be doubled.

Central Paris is densely populated by European standards and visitors are often dismayed by traffic jams around the historic sights of the world’s top tourist destination, although two-thirds of residents do not own cars.

Industrial pollution from factories north of Paris is often carried into the capital by winds.

However, a move to ban wood fires in Paris residential buildings was quashed by the environment minister, Ségolène Royal.

The announcement by Ms Hidalgo, a socialist, was criticised for coming “too late” by her centre-Right opponent in last year’s mayoral election, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.

“The worst-polluting coaches and heavy goods vehicles should have been banned years ago,” Ms Kosciusko-Morizet said on Wednesday. “In the tourist season there are up to 2,000 coaches a day (in Paris) and most of them are diesel.”

Boris Johnson is under pressure to ban diesel cars from London’s roads, where pollution levels are also high. Diesel fumes contain tiny particles and nitrogen oxides that are particularly harmful to health.