Birmingham Clean Air Zone : Driver's 'persecution' over fines

Sian Booth said she had not had the opportunity to appeal against debt collection letters before bailiffs had arrived

A pregnant theatre manager said she faced "persecution" from debt collectors over a Clean Air Zone fine.

Sian Booth said bailiffs had visited her home before she was able to appeal against a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for driving in Birmingham.

In another instance, a family said they had been unable to contact Birmingham City Council over a mistake involving their number plate.

The authority said it followed the correct legal process at all times.

Mrs Booth, from Nottingham, visited Birmingham for a work conference in June 2022, when her diesel car was caught on ANPR cameras.

But she only became aware of two fines 11 months later, in May 2023, when she received letters from a debt collection agency.

The Clean Air Zone has been in force since 2021

She added she had felt "forced to empty her bank account" after a bailiff, acting for the authority, had visited her home.

Despite complaints to the local authority, she said she had paid out about £700 to settle the debt.

Mrs Booth said: "How do I say to my four-year-old 'I'm crying because there is a man I do not know outside my home threatening to come in my home and take away our possessions'?

"I asked them to stop the enforcement, but they said 'we don't think you are pregnant enough' and 'you need to start making these payments immediately'."

She has since been told while her enforcement fees will be refunded, she must pay the original fine - but she questions why the council sought to enforce it.

Birmingham's Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was set up in 2021, with air pollution considered a public health crisis - figures at the time suggested it contributed to 900 premature deaths a year in the city.

However, recent research suggests the zone's impact at cutting harmful nitrogen dioxide levels has been less than first thought.

Unpaid fines

Four debt collection companies work on behalf of the council on enforcing the Clean Air Zone.

Redditch-based Bristow and Sutor has taken on more than 133,000 cases, according to a Freedom of Information request by BBC Midlands Today, although some may relate to the same individuals.

By mid-August Birmingham City Council, which has since declared itself effectively bankrupt, had raised £79.5m from the Clean Air Zone daily fee and fines.

Income from Clean Air Zones is primarily used to cover the running costs of the scheme.

Any surplus is used to improve local transport, which can include improvements to public transport and cycling and walking schemes.

Figures from brumbreathes.co.uk show that 47,008 PCNs have been issued, but 59%, or 27,853, remain unpaid.

Since 2021, drivers of diesel cars manufactured before 2015 and petrol cars made before 2006 have had to pay an £8 daily fee to drive inside the A4540 Middleway ring road.

Adam Pulley said he had struggled to contact the council to challenge his wife's penalty charge notice

Nurse Catherine Pulley had exemption vouchers when she attended a vaccination training event in Birmingham in 2021.

However, due to a mistake inputting the vehicle's registration plate, PCNs were issued and her husband Adam said he had been unable to make contact with enforcement officials to explain the error.

"They're very stringent, they won't talk to you outside of their process, so no-one would actually appear to say, 'this is wrong let's cancel this and stop it escalating'," he said.

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• City Clean Air Zone: What you need to know

Birmingham City Council said about 6% of all PCNs had been written off since 2021.

But the Labour MP for Perry Barr, Khalid Mahmood, said he believed the scheme had become a "money-making process".

"I've had constituents who have had up to £8,000 accrued on CAZ charges," he said.

"I don't think we need the scheme at this moment."

Birmingham City Council said it could not comment on individual cases, with a spokesperson adding: "The opportunities for challenge are also set out at each stage of the process so that anyone issued with a penalty charge notice understands how they can pay or challenge it."