Bradford Clean Air Zone: Commercial vehicles face £50 pollution charge

Senior councillors will make a decision on bringing in a Clean Air Zone for Bradford

Owners of commercial vehicles emitting high levels of pollution could be charged up to £50 a day to enter a Yorkshire city centre.

Bradford councillors will vote on the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) scheme in March, and, if approved, trigger a "soft launch" in December.

In 2018 the city council was told by government it needed to cut levels of air pollution.

Neighbouring Leeds scrapped a planned CAZ in 2020.

Derby, Nottingham and Southampton have also dropped similar schemes, but Bath, Birmingham and Bristol are due to introduce their own zones later in 2021.

A scheme for Greater Manchester is also going ahead and is expected be launched in 2022.

Proposals for a scheme in Sheffield are being reviewed to include the impact of Covid-19 on travel patterns.

Charges for high-polluting vehicles in Birmingham city centre will come into force from 1 June 2021

Under Bradford's plans, buses, coaches and HGVs which breach pollution levels would face a charge of £50 while taxis would be charged £12.50.

Owners of light good vehicles, such as minibuses, would face a fee of £9.

A report to the council's executive shows Bradford has been given £39.3m of government funding to implement the scheme and help vehicle owners switch to greener models.

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HGV and bus operators who wish to enter the zone, which covers much of the city centre and the Bradford-Shipley corridor, could claim up to £16,000 per vehicle, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Van and minibus operators would be eligible for upgrades worth a maximum of £4,500.

Of the total fund, around £10m would be set aside for taxi operators with grants of up to £3,200 for private hire vehicles and £4,000 for Hackney carriages.

A network of automated number plate recognition cameras would identify non-compliant vehicles with owners then receiving a charge notice.

Private cars are not included in the plan.

From December, drivers of commercial vehicles which don't meet the "Euro 6" standard would receive a letter informing them the charges will come into force on 4 January 2021, the report says.

The scheme will have a "planned obsolescence" because as more vehicles are upgraded to cleaner technology income will decrease until it is "entirely eliminated", it adds.

Councillors are recommended to approve the plans at a meeting on 2 March.