Charge exemptions cut to six months

PROMISED exemptions from the charges to enter Bristol’s Clean Air Zone have been cut from one year to six months or less, it has emerged.

The reduction means people who would have been let off the £9-a-day fee for the first year of the scheme after it starts next summer will have to start paying from January 2023.

The change is due to the delayed introduction of the scheme and the Government’s insistence that no local exemptions are applied beyond next year, a council officer said.

But the groups affected, which include hospital patients and visitors, still have a year from January 2022 to take advantage of the grants and loans that will be available to switch to a less polluting vehicle before the exemption expires.

The Clean Air Zone scheme, designed to curb air traffic pollution, was expected to start last month, but the council has said it is “hopeful” it will now begin in “late summer” 2022.

Unless they have an exemption, owners of older, more polluting vehicles will have to pay a daily fee to enter the zone. Polluting cars, taxis and vans face a charge of £9 a day, while larger vehicles, such as buses, coaches and lorries, face a hefty £100 daily fee.

The Government has told local authorities they must permanently exempt certain vehicles, such as classic cars, circus trucks, emergency services and mobile cranes. It has also approved temporary exemptions for certain groups in Bristol, including patients and regular visitors to Bristol Royal

Infirmary and other hospitals in the zone, low-income workers who have to travel into the zone for work, people who live in the zone and Blue Badge holders.

All local exemptions for individuals and businesses will end in December 2022, instead of lasting for a year, as requested by the council.

Asked why, the council’s head of strategic city transport, Adam Crowther, told members of the council’s overview scrutiny and management board that the Government body responsible for clean air zones did not want any exemptions in place in 2023, the year Bristol must meet its clean air target.

“If we have exempt vehicles driving around in 2023, then that potentially affects whether you’re going to be compliant in that year,” he said.