Clean Air Zone ‘on course’ for September

SIGNS and cameras for the Clean Air Zone are to start going up now, the city’s mayor Marvin

Rees has revealed.

He said again that the CAZ is “on course” to launch in September, but no specific date has yet been released. Designed to curb traffic air pollution, the CAZ will see drivers of older, more polluting vehicles – an estimated 75,000 a day – charged to enter an area of the city centre.

Speaking during a press briefing yesterday, city mayor Marvin Rees said: “On our end, everything is on course.

“Everything has got risk. In that, delivering a Clean Air Zone is down to us getting done what we need to get done, but remember this is a national scheme.

“We do need government to deliver on its bit too, but on our end we are looking for September.”

Mr Rees said that works for the CAZ – such as signage or the installation of cameras – will be starting now, adding people should be noticing these appear across the city.

The council has previously said that it estimates that about three in 10 vehicles in Bristol will attract the charges, which were set at £9 for smaller vehicles and £100 a day for any of the larger vehicles.

It has also previously said that the city is under a legal duty to introduce a clean air zone to reduce toxic pollution caused by traffic in the shortest possible time.

Temporary exemptions for the CAZ in Bristol will apply until the end of 2022 according to the council website. Back in 2021, the council’s head of strategic city transport told councillors that the government body responsible for clean air zones did not want any exemptions in place in 2023, the year that Bristol must meet its clean air target.

“The Clean Air Zone is not a congestion charge, it is not there to raise revenue or to stop people going in,” he said.

“It is actually there to change behaviours, change the way people travel.

“If we put exemptions upon exemptions, it will not change behaviour.”

As part of the CAZ introduction, the council has secured a £42 million package of support with the government.

This includes £1.8 million of loans and grants to help people who need to change their vehicle, £32 million for businesses to upgrade HGVs, LGVs, taxis and private hire vehicles and £5.9 million to help people switch to public transport and make more journeys by walking or cycling with free electric bike loans, training on how to cycle and free bus tickets.