‘Bath CAZ forces me to go shop in Bristol’

A VAN owner from Bath has said he will “have to go to Bristol” for shopping after the Clean Air Zone charges start on Monday, March 15.

Luke Edwards, 36, converted his Volkswagen Transporter into a campervan after he bought it five years ago and uses it to tour festivals in the summer.

The vehicle, from 2007, is his only mode of transport and eligible for the new £9 daily charge under the zone introduced by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Mr Edwards explained: “My van is registered as a motorcaravan but because it started life as a panel van it is still in the tax class of the panel van.

“I changed it on the V5 to a motor caravan but the tax class doesn’t change and they use that to decide what qualifies for the charge.

“The DVLA won’t change the tax class, but other vehicles that are older that are down as campervans are exempt, even though they are more polluting.”

The Newbridge Road resident said he had spent a lot of time and money on the DIY conversion and couldn’t take his daughter “with her kiddy seat” into Bath on the bus.

“I will have to drive to Bristol any time I want to do any shopping; it’s easier to drive to Longwell Green than into Bath.

“I’m not opposed to the Clean Air Zone. I think something needs to be done. I just think it’s misleading and people are going to get caught out,” he said.

Mr Edwards said he had heard of other van owners in the same position and earlier this week a plumber slammed the new zone with claims it would “hammer” tradesmen.

Full details of the vehicles eligible for charges under the scheme can be found on the council website, but they will apply to vans of euro standard one to five/V diesel and one to three petrol.

Some taxi drivers will also be charged the £9 daily fee and some coaches will forfeit £100 a day to enter the zone.

Councillor Sarah Warren, joint cabinet member for climate emergency and neighbourhood services at Bath and North East Somerset Council, said: “Grants and/or interest-free finance is available to eligible businesses or individuals with chargeable vehicles regularly travelling in the zone (two or more times a week).

“We also advise them to then book to talk to a CAZ adviser on our website. We can check their eligibility for the scheme and help them to decide whether to replace or retrofit their vehicle and look at the costs involved.”

PREFERRED routes for a new multi-billion pound mass transit system proposed for Bristol have been mapped out for the first time.

The map shows the proposed overground and underground routes in orange, with four in total connecting the city centre with Bristol Airport, Cribbs Causeway, Emersons Green and the A4 corridor towards Bath.

Stops along the way appear to include the YTL Arena currently under construction, Southmead Hospital, Montpelier, Knowle, Hengrove, Hareclive Road, the A38 park and ride, Arnos Vale, Old Market, Lawrence Hill, St George, Kingswood and Emersons Green.

Segregated bus routes and rail routes are also shown on the map, as well as new park and ride sites at the M32, Hicks Gate, the A4018 and at either end of the A38 to the north and south of the city.

These ‘rapid’ bus routes could be delivered within the next five to 10 years, the mayor said.

The council has said the proposal is not finalised, and feedback will be sought from the public later this year.

Mayor Marvin Rees said: “The underground would involve some tunnels and some surface travel, but the advantage of tunnels is that it’s segregated from traffic.

“We try to get people to stop thinking about a London underground big, heavy, rail-based option. You could be talking about light rail, we could be talking about some kind of segregated tram system, or you could be talking about pods on rubber wheels – basically driverless pods that follow white lines on the floor.

“That gives a lot more flexibility for storage and travel because they’re not trapped on the rails.

“The exact technology is yet to be confirmed.”

Mr Rees has previously been accused of ‘pie in the sky’ thinking over the underground plan.

However, he challenged that and said: “Brunel didn’t think the bridge was pie in the sky, did he?

“We’re a modern city... a serious city now. The idea we’re a city that can’t get things done – we’ve got to move beyond that.

“Of course we can build a mass transit system here; there’s nothing inherent in Bristol’s DNA that says we can’t get things done.”

The councils will now narrow down their options and plan to put an outline business case forward to the Department for Transport in the spring or summer, with public consultation also planned for summer ahead of a full business plan being submitted at a later date.