Future of clean air zones? 1 January at 1:27PM in Motoring 18 replies 448 views

sevenhills

Some clean air zones were cancelled and some went ahead, such as Bradford.
Will those cancelled clean air zones be brought back, it would be a bizarre situation if some areas have them and some not, although perhaps London is a case on its own.
Can these schemes become revenue raising and replace the tax on vehicle fuel?

daveyjp

Whether they are brought back to other cities will be down to any Ministerial Direction from Government if levels are still being exceeded.

They are revenue raising, but only until the point air is quality improved at which point clean air charging and revenue generation should stop.  Of course having spent millions setting up the systems to monitor each vehicle entering zones (and Government receiving part of the imcome)  it is highly unlikely the cameras will be turned aff and they will be used for other income generation such as traffic offences as happens now in London.

ratrace

Agree Its a money maker its not going to stop i have read somewhere they generated approx £1.8m in the first 3 months alone since the start in sept so they are rolling it in and the gravy train is not going to stop

Leeds was scrapped due to covid really as no one was going in the center (im there most days) and the emissions dropped so as a result they have scrapped it for now but all the cameras are still there, so it wont take much to "switch them on"

i know customers who have had to sell the perfectly working "non compliant car on" so they can meet the local criteria as a result they have had to take out loans to buy the much more expensive cars so they can work and provide, its a joke in all honesty

Ectophile

ratrace said:

Agree Its a money maker its not going to stop i have read somewhere they generated approx £1.8m in the first 3 months alone since the start in sept so they are rolling it in and the gravy train is not going to stop

Leeds was scrapped due to covid really as no one was going in the center (im there most days) and the emissions dropped so as a result they have scrapped it for now but all the cameras are still there, so it wont take much to "switch them on"

i know customers who have had to sell the perfectly working "non compliant car on" so they can meet the local criteria as a result they have had to take out loans to buy the much more expensive cars so they can work and provide, its a joke in all honesty

It's about reducing air pollution.  You may not care about pollution, but other people do.

Flight3287462

sevenhills said:

Can these schemes become revenue raising and replace the tax on vehicle fuel?

That would be a win as I can count on one hand the number of times I drive anywhere near a city in any given year and most years I can avoid them totally.

Time the countryside caught a break.

annabanana82

I live near the Bristol CAZ, certainly before Christmas it made no difference to the congestion on getting into the centre.

My main issue with Bristol is that the public transport is incredibly poor, and until this month very expensive, but the reduced pricing is temporary until March.

What we are seeing now though is that the CAZ is another reason why people can't or won't travel into work, I don't work within the CAZ but it is part of the commute for many and £9 a day on top of fuel costs is too much for many lower paid staff.

Car_54

Flight3287462 said:

sevenhills said:

Can these schemes become revenue raising and replace the tax on vehicle fuel?

That would be a win as I can count on one hand the number of times I drive anywhere near a city in any given year and most years I can avoid them totally.

Time the countryside caught a break.

The countryside already has a big advantage - breathing clean air.

ratrace

Ectophile said:

ratrace said:

Agree Its a money maker its not going to stop i have read somewhere they generated approx £1.8m in the first 3 months alone since the start in sept so they are rolling it in and the gravy train is not going to stop

Leeds was scrapped due to covid really as no one was going in the center (im there most days) and the emissions dropped so as a result they have scrapped it for now but all the cameras are still there, so it wont take much to "switch them on"

i know customers who have had to sell the perfectly working "non compliant car on" so they can meet the local criteria as a result they have had to take out loans to buy the much more expensive cars so they can work and provide, its a joke in all honesty

It's about reducing air pollution.  You may not care about pollution, but other people do.

Did i say i didnt care about air pollution.

Im talking about normal handworking people being forced into debt because they have to upgrade cars/vans which are mush more expensive so they can carry on working i know a few tradesmen who have had to do that

Dont believe everything you read 

Goudy

I can't see what the local governments rake in on these ULEZ schemes ever replacing what the national government rake in from VED.

I think we are going to end up with tiered pricing schemes.
Everyone pays the national governments VED, even EV's (that's been announced already).
Local governments will alter these clean air zones to road charging zones as they become less profitable.

Khan has already stated that is the long term plan for London.

If you think about it, introducing a charge for entering a clean air zone in a polluting vehicle isn't that big a money spinner, not in long run.
There are a large amount of vehicles already exempt and many that can, will swap their vehicles anyway.
The ones that aren't exempt are naturally dying out each and every day.
Plus you won't be able to buy chargeable (to the scheme) vehicles much longer.

As low emisson zones, their futures are pretty bleak and is hardly a sound business case when the "customers" drastically reduce day by day.
You'd get ripped a new hole if you took that on the Dragons Den!

Once the scales trip in favour of the zero emission vehicle, these zones will all end up just road pricing schemes. Drive into them with anything and you'll pay the local government a fee.
I wouldn't count on them discounting zero emission vehicles either, as they will eventually be the only "customer".

Herzlos

ratrace said:

Ectophile said:

ratrace said:

Agree Its a money maker its not going to stop i have read somewhere they generated approx £1.8m in the first 3 months alone since the start in sept so they are rolling it in and the gravy train is not going to stop

Leeds was scrapped due to covid really as no one was going in the center (im there most days) and the emissions dropped so as a result they have scrapped it for now but all the cameras are still there, so it wont take much to "switch them on"

i know customers who have had to sell the perfectly working "non compliant car on" so they can meet the local criteria as a result they have had to take out loans to buy the much more expensive cars so they can work and provide, its a joke in all honesty

It's about reducing air pollution.  You may not care about pollution, but other people do.

Did i say i didnt care about air pollution.

Im talking about normal handworking people being forced into debt because they have to upgrade cars/vans which are mush more expensive so they can carry on working i know a few tradesmen who have had to do that

Dont believe everything you read 

Are they much more expensive? to hit the emissions levels you'd need a 9 year old diesel or a 14 year old petrol vehicle. Granted there are essentially no petrol vans, and vans cost more than equivalent cars, but you can still get a qualifying van for about £6k.

Or you can just charge the customer a LEZ fee if you need to go into one of the zones. It shouldn't put many people out of business but it might be enough to get them to consider their usage.

With any scheme to do anything, someone will lose out, and it's almost always those at the bottom. But what's the alternative here? Wait until the vehicles get scrapped?

Personally, I'd like to see a large expansion of car free zones, or LEZ that apply to all cars, to try and make cities a lot nicer for everyone. Obviously you'd need to pair that up with good public transport and park & ride facilities.

Bigwheels1111

I have a euro 6 diesel and wondered what will happen in 2025 when euro 7 comes out.
Will they ban my 9 year old car that will only have 26k on the clock.
How much carbon used to replace it. New Nox target 0.04 for diesel and petrol.
Current target Petrol 0.04 Diesel 0.06, Will the drop make a difference.
I don’t care as I will get a 4 year extension as it’s a disabled vehicle and will get me to 2029 when I planed to change.