On Monday 25 October, London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expanded to cover the whole inner city. Across the UK, other cities are implementing their own Clean Air Zones too. Is this the future of urban motoring?
To see the grumbling online and in some corners of the media, you'd think it had come as a complete surprise and that the change was being jumped on an unsuspecting city by a Mayor acting on a particularly cruel whim. But anyone claiming to be caught out by the expansion of London's ULEZ clearly hasn't been paying attention. The date of 25 October 2021 has been fixed since at least spring 2018, so this change has been coming for almost three and a half years.
London is just one of the cities across the UK that are now getting increasingly tough on polluting vehicles. Many refer to theirs as a Clean Air Zone rather than an Ultra Low Emission Zone, but the effect is much the same. The expansion of London's ULEZ on 25 October seems like a good time to take stock of where we are with all these schemes, so before we dip a toe into the controversy, let's take a tour of the LEZ, ULEZ and CAZ projects appearing nationwide.
London ULEZ
This already existed, but on 25 October its scope widened to cover a massive area. Previously it was aligned with the Congestion Charge, covering an area of about 22km² within the Inner Ring Road. Now its boundaries are the North and South Circular Roads, meaning it's now more than fifteen times larger, covering an area of 380km². You could comfortably fit most of Birmingham into that sort of space. City Hall's prediction is that it will have an effect equivalent to taking 60,000 cars off the road, cutting harmful NOx emissions by 30% within its boundaries.
It applies to vehicles driving anywhere within the zone, whether or not they cross the zone boundary, though its boundaries do not appear to be completely watertight. There are simply too many streets and lanes crossing the North and South Circulars to feasibly cover with cameras, so the system seems to rely on covering main entrances and exits, and additional cameras doing spot checks at various undisclosed locations within the zone.
Notably, heavy goods vehicles (over 3.5 tonnes) and larger buses (over 5 tonnes) are exempt from the ULEZ - instead, they must observe the even larger Low Emission Zone (LEZ) which covers all of Greater London and has been running since 2008.
| Active | Now (since 25 October 2021) |
|---|---|
| Vehicles affected | Cars, motorcycles, vans (up to and including 3.5 tonnes) and minibuses (up to and including 5 tonnes) |
| Exempt vehicles | HGVs, buses and coaches are exempt but subject instead to the LEZ Petrol vehicles that meet Euro 4 standards Diesel vehicles that meet Euro VI standards |
| Daily charge | £12.50 |
| How to pay | Transport for London’s website TfL Pay to Drive app Phone 0343 222 2222 |
| More information | Transport for London |
Bath CAZ
Comments
Dundee is getting one too: https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/service-area/city-development/sustainable…
Aberdeen is looking at introducing one as well https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services/roads-transport-and-parking/lo…
The LEZs in Scotland will be different. They impose a total ban on the more polluting vehicles (but with various exemptions). There's no option to make a modest payment on line; if you get caught in one, it will be the full civil penalty charge.
I think you need to expand the exempt vehicle sections as not all diesel vehicles are regulated by the Euro regulations with Roman numerals ( They are for heavy-duty engines only ).
My car is Euro 4 but I get told by the CAZ checker on gov.uk that I need to pay. That's because my car is diesel and I believe the CAZ limits are Euro 6 for diesels.
One other thing. It seems odd that a diesel car with a particulate filter has to pay but a petrol car without one doesn't. Wasn't there some research showing that petrol cars produced the 2.5 micron sized particles that are worse as they get deeper into the lungs?
“This list is just for illustration and it's not exhaustive.”
Pun intended? Haha.
An interesting article, and I am glad that the same standards will be applying to all of them. I checked my car and it is OK to drive it into any of these zones.
I have also had a slight chuckle at the “FURY” and “OUTRAGE” in the papers about the ULEZ expansion, because as you say it is not as if the date hasn’t been known about for many years.....
“since Portsmouth has no through traffic that might not be a problem for very many people”.
WRONG! The city forms one of only three access routes from the Isle of Wight to the mainland.
More vehicles are exempt from the London LEZ/ULEZ than the examples given above.
Vehicles in the Historic tax bracket (over 40 years old) are exempt - although it's not quite as simple as that.
Vehicles in the Historic tax bracket built before January 1 1973 are exempt under all circumstances; vehicles in the Historic tax bracket built after January 1 1973 are exempt only if they are not in commercial use.
I think this slightly odd stipulation is to capture fees from the Citroen HY coffee vans in London. All of these are old enough to fall into the Historic tax bracket, but most are post-1973. Rather incredibly, Citroen built the HY van - introduced 1n 1947 but essentially a 1930s design - right up to 1981.
It may seem strange to exempt the oldest vehicles from the ULEZ charge - after all, they're the dirtiest ones, right? But in reality there are so few old vehicles in use they don't make any measurable difference to air quality. After all, it's not like London's roads are choked with 1950s Morris Minors and 1960s Ford Cortinas.
The Historic exemption is a bit academic, really, since the vehicles that benefit are virtually non-existent anyway. But it does mean that traders at the Classic Car Boot Sale, held twice a year in Kings Cross, can drive to the site.
Showman's vehicles are also exempt, regardless of age - so the travelling fair can come to town. There is a requirement to be genuinely involved in the trade, though. You can't just go out and buy an old Foden generator truck and use it as your daily driver. You'll be expected to prove you really are the fairground sparky.
Agricultural vehicles are also exempt, although in this case I can't find any requirement to prove you are actually a farmer. So buy that combine harvester today!
This is a smart idea, but it is beginning to look overused due to many cities introducing them in recent years.
(this is just my opinion)
Trying to leave politics aside, it's strange to see that the leader of Portsmouth City Council seems to be against the scheme. Might be interesting to see what happens after the 'two years' he mentions, runs out.
My car is a 2004 petrol produced in fairly small numbers (about 1500 UK registrations). This predates the Euro 4 standard, and yet the government's checker claims I do not need to pay CAZ/ULEZ charges. I'm worried that at some point in the future some computer or person will "realise the mistake" and back-bill me and maybe even levy penalty charges. Am I at risk of such back-billing?
No you're not, only if they re-classify the vehicle and you then go into the ULEZ. Using ANPR, they'll capture your car's reg number, and check to see if payment has been made, (you have until midnight of the third day after the day ouf the journey to pay the tll (£12.50). If you don't pay they'll issue a Penalty Charge Notice to the keeper as recorded on the V5 for the vehicle. If you get one, you can appeal it, (you weren't in the zone), or pay. There is a discount option (50%) for early payment of the PCN. Remember that there is also the London Congestion Charge. The two schemes are totally separate and paying the ULEZ toll does not cover you for the CC
What’s interesting is most studies and data shows now that the improvements in air quality begin and are quite well established well before the official start dates of these zones. Simply announcing the intention seems to change behaviour almost immediately.
There’s lots of concerns about the class and social divide here, but Birmingham for example has a fantastic public transport network for a start. Euro 4 emissions were introduced on all new cars from January 2005 and all newly registered cars from January 2006. Most cars on the 2nd hand market would be compliant and exempt
There's also another type of restriction being implemented with lower speed limits now appearing on some roads to limit air polution, this can be seen on the M4 between J41 and J42 with the speed limit orginally being 70 now 50 with average cameras and signs stating that's to do with air quality
I often see the same travelling southbound on the M6 through Birmingham. It's usually down to 60mph and the VMS signage states it's due to air quality (aside from the usual West Midlands M6 woes like queues, queues and more queues!)
Afraid the Bradford boundaries are slightly wrong. It's not the area INSIDE the ring road - it includes the ring road itself. So if you were planning to use the ring road to avoid the city centre....you STILL go inside their CAZ.
..I have no idea why they chose to do that. But this means there's no disincentive not to go straight through the middle of the city by that point - I mean, if they're charging you anyway....
https://www.bradford.gov.uk/breathe-better-bradford/where-is-the-clean-…
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Sources
- Clean Air Zone categories: Clean Air Zones, Gov.uk
Lovely read, I would like to see CAZs as a social barrier, one that allows posh people living in the suburban remote towns to drive their electric Land Rover and get a boba tea downtown, while the self-emplyed Amazon drivers have to take out a second mortgage to replace their 03 reg Fiesta van just to get by.
It's also important to point out that many of these councils have no proper infrastructures in place for communters to even think about switching to bikes. I am not saying that there are no plans at all, but it just seems that their bike or cycle-to-work initiatives are not as enthusiastic as their CAZ, which is frustrating.