City congestion charge is on the horizon – and not just for lorries
IT is inevitable that Birmingham will introduce a city centre clean air zone charge targeting high polluting vehicles within the next couple of years.
The lethal levels of air pollution mean that action to reduce traffic in the city centre is needed and every day that action is not taken more people will suffer and health services will be put under pressure.
We already have estimated 900 premature deaths a year and many more people struggling with conditions like asthma suffering in Birmingham due to pollution.
The body of evidence is growing all the time. In November the British Medical
Journal reported a link between traffic exhaust pollution and low birth weight.
The same report also highlighted a secondary problem of traffic noise pollution also having an impact on health and therefore our health budgets.
But, despite this growing recogni- tion of public health emergency, it appears that details of the proposed measures are unlikely to be revealed to residents at this time.
That is because the city’s politicians are furiously rowing behind the scenes over how far they want the charge to go and whether they should announce it ahead of the May local elections.
A report due to go to the council’s cabinet this week which was to outline proposals ahead of public consultation was pulled a day before the meeting.
Cabinet member responsible for the clean air policy Lisa Trickett told colleagues that this was because the full range of government data, impact assessments and details of any mitigation funding was not available.
The government has already kicked the problem into the long grass with a plan to phase out diesel and petrol cars by 2040 – and told the 20-odd cities up and down the country wrestling with lethal pollution to sort out a policy which works rather than suggest one.
Cllr Trickett described this as ‘passing the buck and blame’.
Although relaxed about its own policy time scales, the government has ordered the council to submit its plans by September. Hence the need to get the plan drafted and consulted on as soon as possible.
The council had already agreed to some form of clean air zone by 2020 at the latest – one which would charge only commercial vehicles - eg vans, lorries and coaches – whose engines fail to meet to certain emission targets.
A ring of cameras has already been set up in preparation for this and has been collecting data on numbers and types of vehicles going in and out of the city centre.
But it is becoming increasingly apparent to the public health authorities that this will not be enough to get the pollution levels down sufficiently.
Therefore officials have come to the conclusion that a charge will have to be extended to private cars.
The Labour council leadership has been making noises that this might have to happen for a while now. And Conservative West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has also agreed that some charge will probably have to be introduced but he wants to see incentives, such as a scrappage scheme and investment in park and ride or alternative public transport schemes as well as penalties for polluters.
But how far that should go has not yet been revealed and officially will not be until impact modelling – ie estimates to what impact each level of charge will have on pollution levels.
We do not know whether it will be a rush hour charge only, or operate through the week and weekend.
We do not know how much it is likely to be – and whether it will be graded.
And we do not know which cars will be charged – will it be five or ten-year-old diesels, or petrol cars too. Which size of engine?
And will the proceeds be ploughed into more pollution busting measures – perhaps targeting parents who leave cars idling outside school gates or discounts for public transport.
Whatever cut-off is decided there is however a fear behind the scenes that a ‘congestion charge’ – even if only targeted at ten year old diesel engines encroaching on the middle ring road would be politically unpopular.
Certainly the opposition Conservatives believe that and will doubtless portray it as another tax from the profligate Labour run council in their campaign material.
And some Labour members believe that hitting older cars, which tend to be higher polluters, will unfairly impact on poorer people and more generally those unable to easily swap their motor.
Others believe that most of those motoring into the city centre each day actually come from outside the city council area and therefore the charge is unlikely to impact large numbers of constituents.
Whatever the reason for the crippling inaction it is only delaying the inevitable and piling on the misery for those suffering as a result of lethal pollution.
We already have an estimated 900 deaths a year with many more struggling with conditions like asthma
IN a not unrelated issue the council’s cabinet accepted a £2.9 million government grant to install almost 200 electric charging points for taxis throughout the city as an incentive for drivers to go green.
The report highlighted some unhelpful terminology by dividing them into two types of charge – rapid and fast.
Thanks to Daz Wright on Twitter who swiftly and helpfully informed me that a fast will take three to four hours to charge a car and rapid just 30 minutes.