Council writes off £2.7 million in Clean Air Zone fines
MORE than 45,000 fines issued to drivers since the launch of Birmingham’s controversial Clean Air Zone have been written off by the city council.
The local authority has lost out on at least £2.7 million through fines it has been unable to collect.
The Post revealed earlier this year how council bosses had massively underestimated the number of drivers who would fail to understand the new rules. It meant the authority was overwhelmed by the sheer number of fines which needed processing.
Chiefs previously admitted it would be impossible to recover all the cash it was owed in penalties. In the early months of the CAZ, as many as 7,500 fines a month were written off.
The number of drivers being penalised has fallen since then but remains at around 50,000 a month, as motorists in older, gas-guzzling motors continue to be caught out in huge numbers around the city centre. Around 2,500 fines a month issued between November 2021 and April 2022 have been written off – roughly one in 20.
More issued in recent months could still yet be written off if the council decides it won’t be able to recover the cash. Separately, more than 10,000 CAZ fines have been successfully appealed after being challenged by drivers who felt they had been unfairly punished.
Over half of drivers being fined every month are refusing to pay up. Around 400,000 more fines than expected were generated in the first eight months of the pay-as-you-drive scheme. The council predicted just 69,000 fines would be imposed - but that number was dwarfed by the actual figure of around 470,000, as it raked in £20 million.
A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “The purpose of the Clean Air Zone is to improve air quality in the city centre. The majority of people who need to pay the daily fee do so in the 13-day payment window. We would encourage anyone driving into the city centre to check whether or not they need to pay the fee.”