• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Wednesday January 17 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Bristol City Council says Clean Air Zone has made air ten per cent cleaner

The air quality across Bristol is on average ten per cent cleaner than before the introduction of Clean Air Zone, a report reveals.

The Bristol City Council report, which covers the first year of the CAZ, will be considered by the Mayor of Bristol and the Cabinet at a public meeting on January 23.

A new report, covering the first year of the CAZ, says 88 per cent of journeys into the zone are now made in compliant vehicles.

The remaining 12 per cent have been made by drivers who have chosen to pay the £9 fee to enter the zone in a non-compliant vehicle, or those drivers who have stayed into the zone – either intentionally, or by mistake. And there are plenty of those:

The report says 285,645 penalty charge notices were paid by drivers in the scheme’s first year.

The number of Penalty Charge Notices has fallen by around one-third since its peak as drivers became used to the zone, says the report.

Over its first year, after accounting for operating costs, including to the Department for Transport, the CAZ generated £31 million in fines and charges – £26.4 million after costs.

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And the report says that on average the air is 12 per cent cleaner inside the CAZ zone and 7 per cent cleaner outside it.

Outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Children’s Hospital, nitrogen dioxide levels were down 19 per cent, while the greatest reduction in NO2 levels was recorded on Park Row – down 27.5 per cent.

The report also suggests that footfall in city centre retail areas has remained steady.

The CAZ was launched on November 28, 2022 following a direction from national government to Bristol and other cities, to reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution in the shortest possible time.

The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, admits in the report that the CAZ is a ‘blunt instrument’ but says he is generally happy with the results.

In the foreword, he writes: “The Clean Air Zone remains a blunt instrument from national government, who take £2 from every £9 charge paid by motorists, but, thanks to the support package that we negotiated from Westminster, it is working.

“Millions of pounds of support has been paid out to Bristol residents and businesses to help them upgrade to cleaner vehicles.”