Birmingham clean air zone charges published

Birmingham City Council has revealed that private cars, taxis and vans will pay £8 per day, while HGVs, coaches and buses will be charged £50 per day, to enter the city’s clean air zone (CAZ).

The CAZ is due to be implemented from January 2020 and will cover all roads within the A4540 Middleway ring road, with vehicles not meeting nationally set engine emissions standards being charged to enter this area.

The business case, published by the council in the past few days, also updates the exemptions first proposed in September to support those most likely to be impacted by the proposals.

The measures include:

• One-year exemptions for commercial vehicles such as coaches, vans and lorries registered within the zone. The exemption will only apply to two vehicles per company.
• One-year exemptions for coaches, vans and lorries registered in the Birmingham area and travelling into the zone which have an existing finance agreement beyond 2020. Similarly, this will only apply to two vehicles per business.
• Two-year exemptions for individuals with non-compliant vehicles registered inside the zone.
• One-year exemptions to people with non-compliant vehicles who work within the zone and also satisfy the income threshold of £30,000 per year living within the CAZ and £20,000 living outside the restriced area.
• A one-year exemption for visitors to key health services such as Birmingham Children's Hospital.
• Permanent exemptions for vans and minibuses providing 'essential' community and school transport services.

A number of other measures have also been included in the latest plan including mobility credit or a scrappage scheme for non-compliant car owners working within the zone. The scheme will also be available to residents in the wider West Midlands, allocated on a distance and income basis.

However, the council said that these measures would be dependent on funding from the Government of £68.7 million, consisting of £17.8m from the Implementation Fund for the delivery of signs, cameras and other infrastructure, and £50.8m from the Clean Air Fund for the mitigation measures.

Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and environment at Birmingham City Council, said: “Birmingham is on a journey to cleaner air and the submission of this full business case is a hugely significant step forward on that journey.

“We are under no illusions that air pollution represents a major public health crisis in Birmingham, so we have worked long and hard to put together proposals for the clean air zone that we believe is required to deliver long-term health benefits to the city.

“At the same time, we fully recognise that these proposals will impact on individuals and businesses across the city and the wider West Midlands area, so we are now calling on the Government to provide the funding needed to help us support these people.”

The cabinet report, full business case and associated documents can be found here.

For more on what other towns and cities are proposing, visit our interactive map.