Q:
What are the proposed UK Clean Air Zones (CAZ)?
A:
What is a Clean Air Zone?
A clean air zone (CAZ) defines an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality and deliver improved health benefits and support economic growth.
CAZs aim to reduce all sources of pollution, including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, using a range of measures tailored to the particular location.
It can be confined to a single road or a part of a city (see the interactive map below for areas with or considering a CAZ).
This can include an area in which vehicles can be charged or fined for entering.
> Will you be charged to enter a Clean Air Zone? Look-up tool
Why did the UK introduce Clean Air Zones?
The Government has a long term strategy to improve air quality across the country by discouraging the use of older, more polluting, vehicles and has a short term goal to reduce the number of areas in the UK where air pollution breaches legal limits.
The Government expects CAZs to facilitate low emission take-up, involve councils and contractors displaying leadership in vehicle procurement, improve local emission standards for taxis, buses and private hire vehicles, and support healthy active travel by cycle and walking.
Its Clean Air Strategy identified a CAZ where drivers were charged if their vehicles did not meet stipulated environmental standards as the most effective way of improving air quality in as short a time as possible.
What vehicles will be affected by the Clean Air Zones?
Local authorities can decide what level of restriction to apply.
There are four classes of Clean Air Zone:
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Class A - Buses, coaches, taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs)
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Class B - Buses, coaches, taxis, PHVs and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)
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Class C - Buses, coaches, taxis, PHVs, HGVs and light goods vehicles (LGVs)
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Class D - Buses, coaches, taxis, PHVs, HGVs LGVs and cars
Exemptions from charges or restrictions:
- Buses, coaches and HGVs that meet Euro VI emissions standards.
- Cars, vans and taxis that meet Euro 6 (diesel) or Euro 4 (petrol) emissions standards.
- Ultra-low emission vehicles with a significant zero-emission range.
Will I be charged to enter a CAZ if my vehicle is non-compliant?
Charging is not compulsory. Local authorities will only be able to set charges at levels designed to reduce pollution, not to raise additional revenue beyond recovering the costs of the scheme.
The Government provides a tool for drivers to check. You'll need the registration number of the vehicle in question.
What cities/towns are introducing or considering a CAZ?
Basildon | Bath | Birmingham | Bradford | Bristol | Cambridge | Canterbury | Coventry | Derby | Exeter | Leeds | Leicester | Liverpool | London | Manchester | Newcastle | Nottingham | Oxford | Portsmouth | Sefton | Sheffield Southampton | St Albans | Warrington | Wokingham | York
CAZ currently live/due for imminent launch
Bath has introduced a Class C CAZ. Non-compliant vans, taxis and minibuses will be charged £9, while non-compliant trucks and lorries, and coaches and buses face a daily charge of £100. Private cars and motorbikes will not be charged.
Birmingham’s Class D CAZ applies to all vehicles that do not meet the minimum emissions standards of Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol.
Restrictions apply to all roads within Birmingham’s A4540 Middleway Ring Road, except the ring road itself. The CAZ is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including bank holidays.
Cars, vans and taxis will face an £8 charge, while HGVs, buses and coaches will have to pay £50 per day.
The city implemented a Class D CAZ, which will require drivers of all older, non-compliant, vehicles to pay a daily fee to enter the zone.
Cars, taxis and vans that don’t meet the required emissions standard will be charged £9 per day, while trucks, buses and coaches will pay £100.
Exemptions apply for petrol vehicles that meet Euro 4 standard and diesels that meet Euro 6 standard. Electric and hydrogen vehicles are also exempt, as are motorbikes and modified or retrofitted vehicles registered with the Energy Saving Trust’s Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme (CVRAS).
CAZ is now live.
Bradford City Council has introduced a Class C+ CAZ that covers the majority of Bradford and Shipley. There will be charges for all non-compliant vehicle types with the exception of passenger cars (not including private hire cars which will be subject to the daily charge if not compliant).
Non-compliant trucks, buses and coaches will face daily charges of £50; vans and minibuses will be charged £9 per day; taxis will be charged £7 per day.
ULEZ expansion due on August 29, 2023.
Transport for London (TfL) has launched a consultation on plans to expand the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) to cover almost the whole of the capital from August 29, 2023.
The consultation also focuses on a possible road pricing scheme in the capital. This could include scrapping existing charges, such as the congestion charge, and replacing them with a single road user charging scheme.
The area covered by the current ULEZ is the same area as the Congestion Charging Zone, both charges will apply to non-exempt vehicles.
The ULEZ will operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including weekends and public holidays.
The ULEZ standards are:
- Euro 3 for motorcycles, mopeds, motorised tricycles and quadricycles (L category)
- Euro 4 for petrol cars, vans, minibuses and other specialist vehicles
- Euro 6 for diesel cars, vans and minibuses and other specialist vehicles
- Euro VI for lorries, buses and coaches and other specialist heavy vehicles
Charges: £12.50 for cars, vans and motorcycles; £100 for buses, lorries and coaches.
Exemptions:
Residents within the zone have 100% ULEZ exemption and will continue to receive 90% discount on vehicles that do not meet T-charge emission standards until 24th October 2021, after which they will pay the full ULEZ charge. Cars and vehicles registered with ‘disabled’ or ‘disabled passenger vehicles’ tax classes 100% exempt until 26th October 2025.
CAZ delayed - currently under review
Transport for Greater Manchester is planning to introduce a CAZ for private-hire vehicles, vans, buses and HGVs.
It will cover local roads across the whole of Greater Manchester and operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Cars (excluding taxis) will be exempt from any restrictions.
Other measures include a workplace parking levy, incentives to help uptake of electric vehicles in the city and converting public transport and local authority fleets to be low emissions.
Manchester has also called for a scrappage scheme to help incentivise drivers of older diesel vehicles to switch to an ultra-low emissions models.
CAZ went live on January 30, 2023.
Newcastle and Gateshead have introduced a CAZ is certain parts of the city, affecting buses, coaches and lorries, plus vans and taxis. Private cars are not affected.
The introduction was planned for January 2021, but was delayed, in part, due to a legal dispute over the supply of ANPR cameras for the scheme.
Non-compliant HGV’s, buses & coaches to be charged £50; taxis & vans £12.50.
However, charging for vans has been delayed until July 2023 to allow vehicle owners additional time to upgrade due to national vehicle supply issues.
Alongside the fees, the council also plans to reduce traffic flow on the Tyne bridge to one lane in each direction.
Zero Emissions Zone in operation.
Oxford is the first city to introduce a Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ), charging all petrol and diesel powered vehicles that enter its city centre.
The 'red' zone is enforced between 7am-7pm. The charge will vary from £2 to £10 per day depending on the emission levels of the vehicle. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras have been installed to enforce rules within the zone.
The council is considering an expansion to the ZEZ to cover the remainder of the city centre – this zone will charge a discounted rate for ULEZ exempt vehicles.
CAZ launched in November 2021.
The Portsmouth CAZ is a Class B, meaning that ‘non-compliant’ vehicles will be issued a daily charge to drive in the zone.
For the Portsmouth CAZ ‘non-compliant’ vehicles are buses, coaches, taxi, private hire vehicles and heavy goods vehicles that do not meet euro 6 standards if diesel, or euro 4 standard if petrol.
Non-compliant taxis and private hire vehicles will be charged £10 per day to drive through the zone, and non-compliant buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles will pay £50 per day.
There are some specific vehicle exemptions, including for emergency service and military vehicles.
Sheffield has implemented a Class C CAZ, affecting a zone on the inner ring road surrounding the city centre.
Proposed charges are £50 a day for buses, coaches and HGVs, £10 a day for taxis and private hire vehicles and £10 a day for vans and light goods vehicles above 3.5 tonnes.
If you or your business is based in Sheffield or Rotherham and runs LGVs then you could be eligible to apply for a temporary exemption until June 5, 2023. If you own a Hackney Carriage taxi licensed with Sheffield City Council you will not be charged until June 5, 2023 – the exemption will be set up automatically.
York
York City Council implemented a Clean Air Zone for buses, targeting an area within York’s inner ring road and city centre.
It will limit the frequency that buses can enter the zone, based on the emissions performance of the bus.
York is also looking to convert 17% of taxis to electric hybrids. There will also be a new taxi licencing policy in place to specify minimum emissions standards.
Clean Air Zone proposals by town/city
CAZ opposed.
Basildon and Rochford Councils have been told by the Government that they must consider a CAZ to address two areas of illegal pollution by 2020.
The councils are fighting the order which, if implemented, could impose restrictions on the A127.
The council is proposing a new cycle route and £470,000 of investment for rapid charging points as an alternative to a CAZ.
CAZ under consideration.
Cambridge City Council is currently evaluating a Clean Air Zone within the existing Air Quality Management Area in Cambridge, which includes the trafficked parts of the historic core and the inner ring road.
It has not made a decision on whether the zone will be chargeable or which types of vehicle it will seek to restrict.
The council will also look to reduce HGV emissions in the city centre by promoting greener methods for making deliveries of goods, such as by cycle.
Other proposed policies include incentives for electric or hybrid taxis and reducing bus and coach emissions by working with partners to invest in more environmentally-friendly vehicles.
CAZ not expected.
Canterbury City Council is planning to reduce emissions by adopting strict anti-idling enforcement which would be encouraged at coach parks, on-street parking bays, taxi ranks and at level crossings.
The council will also explore the use of its fee structure to encourage taxi drivers and bus companies to use low-emission vehicles.
Council officers will seek to work with freight companies to encourage them to use the right routes around the city and promote better driving.
CAZ opposed.
The Government has accepted local proposals to reduce pollution in Coventry in lieu of a CAZ.
Coventry has been awarded grant funding of £24.5m to implement the schemes.
CAZ opposed.
Derby has rejected plans to introduce a CAZ and will instead focus on traffic management measures to address air quality issues without any charges for road users.
The current plan is to introduce a traffic management/signal scheme to help reduce traffic flows through Stafford Street near the city centre to help address the air quality issues that have been identified in that location.
This will involve limiting the traffic in Stafford Street and redistribute it to others parts of the highway network.
In addition there will be a need to implement a new urban traffic management and control system across a wider area of the city, which will optimise traffic flow on adjacent routes.
CAZ opposed.
Exeter City Council does not intend to introduce a CAZ or apply access restrictions or limits to the age and type of vehicles which can enter certain areas of the city.
In its Air Quality Action Plan the council says that it aims to discourage private car use and increase use of public transport, cycling and walking.
The Plan concentrates on improving air quality in the Air Quality Management Area, particularly in Heavitree where the highest levels of pollution are measured.
CAZ no longer required (originally due to be introduced in January 2020).
The zone covered all roads within the boundary of the A61 and A63, near Leeds city centre, however, the council found that more than 90% of buses and 80% of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) driven in the city now use cleaner Euro VI engines and therefore wouldn’t be charged if a zone was introduced.
Nearly half of the city’s licensed taxi and private hire cars are also now hybrid or electric.
The review found that, because of the dramatic shift to cleaner vehicles, air pollution in Leeds on key routes is below legal limits and is not likely to exceed them again—even if traffic were to return to ‘normal’ levels or slightly higher.
The council has written to the Government requesting to keep £6.9 million of CAZ funding that Leeds had previously secured to ‘lock in’ the full extent of air quality improvements.
The money would be used to continue offering grants to help local businesses switch to cleaner vehicles as well as to provide free licensing costs to drivers of less polluting taxi and private hire cars.
Leeds will also be able to keep and repurpose the ANPR camera infrastructure that had been installed to monitor and enforce the zone.
In the unlikely event that air quality declined for any reason, the council retains this infrastructure and says it could seek support from central Government to introduce a CAZ.
CAZ plans scrapped.
Defra has confirmed that no CAZ is now required to meet air pollution targets after major improvements to air quality in the city.
CAZ under consideration.
Liverpool City Council is currently assessing the viability of a chargeable Clean Air Zone but has not outlined any formal details.
Liverpool’s Mayor has previously suggested a blanket ban on all diesel vehicles entering the city.
The council has already proposed to enforce anti-idling fixed penalty notices using local authority officers. Liverpool City Council is also switching its city centre fleet to be diesel free from 2020, followed by council vehicles used across the wider city from 2024.
CAZ not required.
Nottingham City Council has cancelled its plans to introduce a clean air zone (CAZ).
The Government approved the city’s plan to tackle air pollution without a CAZ after modelling showed it could reduce air pollution to below the legal limit within two years.
Nottingham’s plan will see the council improving air quality by:
- Retrofitting 180 buses with technology to reduce emissions, funded through the Government’s Clean Bus Technology Fund.
- Changing the age and emissions policy for hackney carriages and supporting an increase in low emission taxis. £1m from government will be used to provide a licensing discount for drivers, a taxi rank with charging points, fund home chargers and expand the council’s ‘try before you buy’ scheme, which started this week.
- In addition, Nottingham City Council has received funding from the Government to support the conversion of its own fleet, including replacing heavy, high polluting vehicles such as bin lorries with electric vehicles.
Non-charging CAZ in operation.
Southampton introduced a Clean Air Zone on a non-charging basis in 2017.
The local authority decided against introducing a vehicle charge following a consultation and, instead, will use other measures to achieve emissions compliance.
These measures include:
Port measures: Including shore side power and preferential charging of the port HGV booking scheme
HGVs: Offering opportunities for businesses to assess and trial freight consolidation, thereby removing HGV trips in the city, and an accreditation scheme for HGV operators so businesses can identify those operators that are least polluting
Buses: Introduction of a traffic regulation condition that will ensure all operating buses meet the highest emission standard
Taxis: Revising taxi licensing conditions to remove the most polluting vehicles, expanding the existing low emission taxi scheme to support more operators, and offering a ‘try before you buy scheme’ for operators to experience the benefits of an electric taxi for up to three months.
CAZ under consideration
Sefton Council commissioned an independent report into the impact of a potential CAZ which concluded a charging CAZ is needed.
Plans are ongoing but buses, lorries and taxis are to potentially be targeted. Exact charges TBC. Private vehicles set to be exempt.
CAZ under consideration.
St Albans City & District Council is considering plans to set up Clean Air Zones in areas where the air quality is poor, or vulnerable people are concentrated.
The scheme is likely to concentrate on fining drivers for excessive idling.
CAZ under consideration.
Warrington Borough Council will examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of introducing a Clean Air Zone.
It has already adopted its five-year plan to tackle pollution, which includes measures such as increasing the use of electric vehicles and establishing new cycling and walking links.
Low Emission Zone under consideration.
Wokingham Borough Council has published its Air Quality Action Plan, which highlights two locations where emissions levels need to be reduced - Wokingham town centre and Twyford Crossroads.
The plan outlines the potential for a Low Emission Zone within the borough, although the Council has not stipulated how this will operate.
Local authorities required by government to produce a local action plan:
- Bolton Borough Council
- Bury Borough Council
- Fareham Borough Council
- Gateshead Borough Council
- Guildford Borough Council
- Middlesbrough Borough Council
- North Tyneside Council
- Rochford Borough Council
- Rotherham Borough Council
- Rushmoor Borough Council
- Salford Borough Council
- Stockport Borough Council
- Surrey Heath Borough Council
- Tameside Borough Council
- Trafford Borough Council
The Scottish Government plans to have four Low Emission Zones (LEZ) in operation by 2022, with the first already up and running in Glasgow.
Alongside Glasgow, LEZs are also expected to be introduced in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee.
Glasgow’s LEZ currently targets buses, but will be extended to cover all vehicle types by 2022.
It will ban non-compliant vehicles from entering the city centre. Penalty charges will apply to those that contravene the restrictions.
Edinburgh are currently working with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to test LEZ options, with others in Aberdeen and Dundee due by the end of 2020.
It’s also expected that Air Quality Management Areas will be established in other Scottish cities and towns by 2023 and they will use LEZs to reduce pollution.
The Welsh Government is seeking views on its Clean Air Zone proposals, which include charging the most polluting vehicles for entering certain parts of its cities.
Cardiff has ruled out a CAZ but is instead looking to introduce a £2 congestion charge for non-residents by 2024 as part of its new ‘transport vision’.
Road user charging isn't the only option available to raise money and the council said it will be looking at other options in a business case it plans to undertake over the next year.
Caerphilly is looking to introduce a Clean Air Zone on the A472 at Hafodrynys Hill and a total ban on HGVs at peak times in the area.
The Welsh Government has said it will encourage local authorities to introduce clean air zones, where evidence suggests they are needed to reduce harmful emissions
Temporary speed limits (50mph) have also been introduced to reduce emissions at five locations:
- A494 at Deeside
- A483 at Wrexham
- M4 between Junctions 41 & 42 (Port Talbot)
- M4 between junctions 25 & 26 (Newport)
- A470 between Upper Boat & Pontypridd
Cardiff Council has already agreed to conduct a feasibility study to determine if a CAZ is needed in the city.
Not mentioned?
If you have any details of plans not covered in the map, please let us know at: fleetnews@bauermedia.co.uk
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