Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees has confirmed that Bristol’s Clean Air Zone, which was due to begin in October, has received government backing and will begin from June next year.
As well as private diesel cars and some petrol cars, coaches and buses that do not meet Euro VI emissions standards will be subject to a daily charge for entering the zone. For non-compliant private cars, that is £9, while for non-compliant coaches and buses it will be £100.
The announcement comes alongside a mitigation package worth some £42m.
“The government have agreed on our business case for our Clean Air Zone,” says Mr Rees speaking to Bristol Live. “It will now go into place in summer 2022. But importantly we’ve got £42m worth of support that we’ll be able to use to support households’ and businesses’ transition to the clean air zone requirements.”
routeone understands that support includes £5.9m to help incentivise a switch to public transport and alternative modes with free bus tickets, bike loans and cycle training. There will also be £2.1m of funding to assist local coach and bus companies comply with the zone. More information on the support package will be available in “the coming weeks and months”.
There will be exemptions to council-funded coaches, buses and minibuses used on home-to-school contracts, as well as community transport providers operating under Section 19 permits.
An exact start date for the zone is yet to be announced.
