Birmingham Clean Air Zone: Leader’s apology over incorrect fines

Ruth Costello has previously said she had never driven to Birmingham in her Volkswagen Caravelle

An apology has been given after a woman was fined 19 times for driving in a clean air zone despite her never having done so and living 160 miles away.

Ruth Costello, from West Sussex, said she had got £120 penalty charge notices (PCNs) since the Birmingham Clean Air Zone launched last year.

Other instances of wrongly issued PCNs include one given to a motorist who was 145 miles away at the time.

Birmingham City Council leader Ian Ward apologised on Tuesday.

The way the scheme was administered had been set by the government, he said.

Mr Ward made the apology at a full council meeting on Tuesday after Erdington councillor Gareth Moore listed cases including Phillip Morton, 73, who was preparing to watch his grandson appear in a school nativity play 145 miles away at the time he was said to be driving in the zone.

Separately, a man from Wolverhampton had received £1,300 in fines for the zone despite never having driven in the area, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The Clean Air Zone was officially launched on 1 June last year

Mr Ward said he would "like to apologise to anyone from anywhere in the country" who had been "incorrectly charged or fined".

He added: "So anybody who has received a fixed penalty notice when they have not driven in the zone - I would like to apologise unreservedly to them."

The council leader also said: "We have been writing to the government, making them aware of these deficiencies in the system and we continue to lobby the government to learn the lessons from the cases that councillor Moore has highlighted."

He added he was against the cameras being turned off until the glitch is rectified as "it's a public health issue - we are cleaning up the air in this city for the benefit of the people of Birmingham."