Data doesn’t back up charges for HGVS

Cllr Kevin Guy has written to Wiltshire council and requested that “we all work together” while trying to implement a heavy HGV congestion charge and wrapping it up in words around the Clean Air Zone (CAZ).

Given that there is a 18t weight limit on Cleveland Bridge (for now) and a 7.5t weight limit on the Paragon, with illegal levels of NOX still being reported around Queen Square, it doesn’t take much scrutiny to realise this “congestion charge” would have absolutely no impact on the current illegal levels of NOX in the city but would go down nicely with Bathwick voters.

It is telling that this congestion charge must sit outside of the CAZ charging framework and will require the council to develop its own expensive IT systems to invoice haulage companies across the UK and Europe.

So this very much feels like an election move to paint Wiltshire and the DFT as baddies and make out that Kevin et al have the best interests of the residents at heart by trying to tackle air pollution headon.

However in October 2017 the council did a detailed two-week, 45-camera number plate recognition study of the city, anonymised the data, and then published the database as part of a Bath Hacked Breathe Hackathon and a bunch of us dived into this data.

What the data roughly showed was that 44% of NOX was down to cars, 13% down to HGVS, and 40% down to vans.

Buses were down to a negligible 2%. Under a CAZ “C”, when all buses, vans, and HGVS were now Euro 6 compliant and not being charged, cars would be responsible for 63% of NOX, HGVS 2%, vans 36%, and buses 0.3%.

More significantly the required 30% reduction in NOX would not be achievable under CAZ C. You’d hit a 29% reduction and as we now know this failed to be achieved.

Under a CAZ “D” model, where all cars are compliant, cars are still responsible for 50% of NOX, HGVS 3%, vans at 47%, and buses again at 0.3%. This achieves a 44% reduction in NOX safely bringing us over the line for UK legal limits!

The uncomfortable truth is that the heavy HGV congestion charge is not backed up by any data and will be rejected by the DFT.

Each year we will continue to see around 100 lives ended early due to illegal levels of air pollution but at last it’s a nice vote-winner and the council “tried their best and if it wasn’t for that meddling Wiltshire we would have got away with it”!

However, to blame this administration for the last Tory administration’s “skin of your teeth” CAZ C model that required traffic lights placed into Queen Square that is now forcing through traffic up into Lansdown would be unfair. This administration needs to fix the last administration’s failure to get this right.

Bath residents should demand that the council follow the data and stop this political grandstanding just because of an election. Bath needs a CAZ D, which it could do tomorrow.

What the city actually needs is a ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) although, no matter how we look at it, banning diesel cars and vans from the city is probably the only way to achieve the new WHO NOX 20 µg/m3 legal limit, which is half the UK’S current 40 µg/m3 limit.

We should see Kevin et al moaning about how Wiltshire and the DFT didn’t play ball with B&NES over the coming months while carefully shoving all the data under the carpet hoping nobody will notice they were on a hiding to nothing.

We need a much more honest conversation here. Just implement a CAZ D.

Oh, and while we’re at it, ban wood-burning stoves in cities. They are a nightmare for air pollution.

Adam Reynolds

Timsbury