Clean air zones: what is the money raised for?

Clean Air Zones in England raised more than £150 million for local authorities by the end of last year, a BBC investigation has found.

Clean Air Zones (CAZs) are designed to reduce pollution by charging drivers to enter certain areas and have not been without controversy.

From 2021, CAZs began operating in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside.

A further £163m has been raised in London, which has had a low emission zone since 2008 and an ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) since 2019.

The idea is to encourage people to take public transport or drive newer or electric cars, which are less polluting.

However, detractors say CAZs penalize those who cannot afford to buy low-emission vehicles.

So what do councils spend the money raised through clean air zones on – and do local people benefit?

The Transport Act 2000 requires local authorities in England to reinvest any excess earnings from clean air areas into local transport plans.

Bristol City Council has estimated that by the end of the 2023/24 financial year it has invested more than £6.6m in road and footway repairs and improvements, encouraging walking and cycling and reducing traffic congestion.

Bradford Metropolitan District Council has used £1.7m of proceeds from its scheme to fund a range of transport improvements, including a greener council vehicle fleet and an electric vehicle charging network.

The council says it now has the cleanest licensed taxi fleet in the country.

Bath and North East Somerset Council spent £30,000 on a series of cycle sheds which provided secure storage in the area.

In Bradford, the council has allocated £1.1 million to a clean air schools programme, which provides funding to schools to help them implement emission reduction measures on site.

This covers the deployment of wardens to raise awareness of anti-idling outside schools and projects such as buses, bicycles, scooters, air filtration systems and natural green screens that use plants to protect play areas.

Similarly, in Bath and North East Somerset, the council injected £250,000 into a School Streets pilot scheme to improve air quality and reduce traffic during school drop-off and pick-up times.

A number of councils have allocated the money raised so far towards the costs of introducing and operating CAZ schemes.

Newcastle City Council, which runs the Newcastle and Gateshead CAZ, raising £2.4m; and Portsmouth City Council, which raised £1.3m, both said the money was used to cover running costs.

Local authorities are also setting aside money for decommissioning zones once they are no longer needed – anticipating that drivers will increasingly switch to vehicles that will not be tolled.

Bath & North East Somerset Council deputy leader Sarah Warren said that while there was currently no intention to decommission, if CAZ stopped operating its reserves it would cover costs such as removing signage, cameras, cables, pipes and power electrical. consumables, as well as deactivating software systems.

Much of the net revenue generated by clean air zones comes not from tolls, but from fines drivers face if they don’t pay the toll.

Since the end of 2023, Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council collected more than £3.8m in daily charges, but took almost double that – around £7m – in fines.

Newcastle City Council said around £1.1m was collected in daily driver charges over a year, but fines brought in almost £1.3m.

Bath & North East Somerset Council has revealed that between March 2021 and the end of 2023 it collected £8.7m in fines and £6.4m in charges.

These combined income streams give councils money they can use for the day-to-day running costs of schemes, transport plans or reserves.

Clean air zones have drawn criticism from those who say they penalize people who can’t afford newer vehicles and have a negative impact on businesses.

Jean Wall, 53, from Bradford runs a mobile sandwich business which she says has been adversely affected by the city’s CAZ.

To get her vehicle from the business base to the main road, she has to enter the toll zone – which means paying £9 every time they need ingredients or fuel.

Mrs Wall says the business initially received a council tax exemption, which was then canceled after her business partner, who drives the van, moved to Leeds, before it was reinstated and then canceled again.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “It’s just red tape, it’s driving you crazy!”

She says the events the business caters for have also shrunk due to the effects of taxes.

“It’s frustrating that you have councilors who won’t listen to your concerns and you get a phone call from this mysterious person at the council saying ‘this is our decision,'” she said.

A spokesman for Bradford Metropolitan District Council said they could not comment on individual cases, but that it was “the responsibility of the vehicle owner to take account of changes in circumstances which may affect existing grants or exemptions”.

“If the council were to change the grant distribution process and the allocation of exemptions, then the government would be within its rights to recover grant funding that was incorrectly distributed,” they said.

The council added that its Clean Air team is happy to discuss any cases with unusual circumstances to explore solutions.