More than 30,000 drivers a month are refusing to pay fines for misusing Birmingham’s controversial Clean Air Zone straight away. Of drivers issued fines during November, a huge 63% had not paid up by the start of January.
The city council has been overwhelmed by the number of motorists failing to comply with CAZ rules since its launch in 2021. More than 50,000 drivers are still being penalised every month and collecting all the cash owed has proved impossible.
Birmingham Live revealed in December how the city council had given up on a huge 45,000 CAZ fines since its launch. Chiefs have admitted recovering all the money it is owed will be impossible.
Analysis of latest CAZ data reveals the difficulties the authority faces in making motorists pay up. Only around 40% of penalties are paid within a month.
Those not paying up straight away will include drivers appealing fines they believe to be unfair and some who just refuse to pay. Some fines may end up being paid at a later date, but many have also been cancelled.
We’ve reported on a number of motorists left fuming after feeling they had been fined unfairly. Another 52,068 penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued during November – 1,735 every day – once again showing huge numbers of drivers either ignore the CAZ or don’t understand how it works or where it operates.
A city council report said “unpaid PCNS comprise of outstanding cases, excluding cancelled or written off cases”. Around 2,500 fines a month issued between November 2021 and April 2022 were written off – roughly one in 20.
More issued in recent months could still yet be written off if the council decides it won’t be able to recover the cash. Separately, more than 10,000 CAZ fines have been successfully appealed after being challenged by drivers who felt they had been unfairly punished.
Despite confusion over how the zone works, council bosses have insisted it is doing its job by cutting emission levels around the city centre. It costs £8 a day for cars which don’t meet emissions standards to drive in the CAZ but the idea is the charge will act as a deterrent.
Drivers who fail to pay are hit with fines of £120, cut to £60 if paid within 14 days. A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “The purpose of the Clean Air Zone is to improve air quality in the city centre.
“Since its introduction it has helped reduce the number of the most polluting vehicles that enter the zone every day. This is helping to improve air quality.
“The majority of people who need to pay the daily fee do so in the 13-day payment window. We would encourage anyone driving into the city centre to check whether or not they need to pay the fee, or the alternatives to using their car, by visiting www.brumbreathes.co.uk.”
Unity News Network (UNN) Staff Writer | To find out more details about our staff, please head to the About Us section on our website.
