Birmingham Clean Air Zone: No payments for first two weeks

Smoke was released from Birmingham Library to represent nitrogen oxides saved by the clean air zone

Drivers will not be charged for entering Birmingham's new Clean Air Zone for the first two weeks, the city council has announced.

The scheme, covering the city centre and targeting high-polluting vehicles, was launched on Tuesday morning.

Some motorists reported problems as they tried to pay in advance for their journeys when the council announced its decision to delay seeking payment.

Councillor Waseem Zaffar said the delay would give drivers "time to adjust".

"We always want to give communities that extra time to be able to adjust to such a difficult and challenging project that this Clean Air Zone clearly is," the cabinet member for transport and environment said.

"So for the next two weeks we won't be seeking any payment or enforcement of those payments either."

Mr Zaffar added there were hundreds of people in the city who could still benefit from grants and exemptions available and urged them to apply.

"We're not interested in taking their money, we want green compliant vehicles coming into our city centre," he said.

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The decision will mean high-polluting cars, which face a daily fee of £8 to travel into the centre of the city, and coaches and lorries, which will be charged £50, will not be required to pay for journeys before 14 June.

For four weeks after that, drivers will be offered the chance to pay just the daily clean air zone charge rather than a £120 fine if they fail to pay within six days.

Analysis

By Kathryn Stanczyszyn, BBC WM Political reporter

Birmingham's Clean Air Zone launched at midnight - but there was confusion from commuters this morning who were trying to dutifully pay the charge.

It only emerged at the official launch at 08:30 BST there was to be a two-week grace period.

The city council says it is to help ease the idea in, which isn't unprecedented with large-scale traffic projects like this.

But the fact that no-one had an inkling there would be a "soft launch" has led to questions over whether it was a late decision and criticism of the way the start of this controversial scheme has been handled.

The Conservative opposition says the delay is down to questions over a procurement contract - an official committee "call-in" - which means the council cannot start charging yet.

Sources tell me that while this may be the case, waiving the charge for the first two weeks was always on the cards, but publicising it could have led to less motivation by motorists to find out more.

It's thought there has also been a large number of applications for exemptions over the last few days, which the council says it wants to deal with before starting properly.

There are a number of exemptions, some temporary, including for those who live inside the zone

A government website allows motorists to check if their vehicles will be affected by the new rules.

All roads inside the A4540 Middleway ring road fall into the clean air zone, but the circular route itself is not included.

The delayed scheme has divided the city, with some criticising the timing of it while businesses attempt to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the local authority said air pollution contributed to 900 premature deaths a year in the city and it faced a £60m fine if it failed to implement the zone.