A driver from London has told how he’s asking Bristol City Council for leniency after he managed to rack up almost £1,000 in Clean Air Zone fines without even knowing Bristol now has a Clean Air Zone.
Nick Gillett, who was born in Bristol but now lives in west London, borrowed a car from a friend in London who was going away for a few months abroad. He decided to use the car for trips back to Bristol to visit family, and went twice down the M4 at Christmas and again in January.
But Nick knew nothing about the Clean Air Zone, which came into force in Bristol at the end of November, and had no clue the car he’d borrowed was an 11-year-old diesel, and so was liable to pay the £9 a day Clean Air Zone charge.
The problem for Nick only came about months later, when his friend returned to find four separate CAZ fines, of £120, for the four different days he’d driven through the zone on those two trips. And because the fine notices had laid on the doormat at his friend’s house for months, they’d doubled, and now he owes almost £1,000.
Mr Gillett said he knew the diesel car he’d borrowed was liable for the ULEZ charge up in London, because he had logged his bank details in so the system in London charged him every time he ventured into it.
But he is now calling for better signage in Bristol, after managing to drive into the CAZ zone four times without noticing. The £945 he owes is a shock, especially because having the car was a special ‘boon’ for the family over Christmas.
“I live in London, but I was born in Bristol and have family in the city, so visit quite frequently,” he said. “At the end of last year a friend of mine lent me his car while he was out of the country for a few months, and I drove it to Bristol at Christmas, and again in January.
“This was a particular boon, because one of my daughters is disabled and finds crowded places distressing, making public transport something of a trial for her. Taking her by car to see her grandmother in Bristol was wonderful, and allowed a level of freedom from stress that really made all the difference,” he added.
He’d registered his payment details with the ULEZ system in London, so ‘don’t even need to think about it - you drive, you pay, all is well’, but did not know about Bristol’s CAZ. Last week, Bristol Live reported that drivers were being told the city could not afford to create a similar system to London’s - which charges drivers automatically every time they enter the charging zone - and it was down to drivers themselves to know they had entered Bristol’s CAZ.
“On my visits to Bristol I had no idea a Clean Air Zone was in effect, or indeed what that name referred to,” said Mr Gillett. “I may well have driven past signs for it, but without any further information - and given that it has a different name from the London version I’m used to - I didn’t know it existed, let alone what would happen were I to fail to pay its fees on time.
“During four days over the course of those two visits, the car I was driving was photographed, and a fixed penalty notice issued. However because those notices were addressed to my friend (who owns the car, but was out of the UK) rather than to me, they sat gathering dust on his doormat, while fines that would still have been painful, have now become a £945 behemoth of a penalty,” he added.
Mr Gillett said he actually supports the principal of cites charging polluting cars in a bid to clean up air pollution, but claimed that the Bristol version is ‘about making money’, and labelled the charges as ‘outrageous’.
“I strongly support cities’ rights to clean up their air, and as a father of two young children I believe it’s important for the future of our cities to do exactly that. What’s going on in Bristol is to my mind not about clean air - it’s about making money,” he said.
Mr Gillett has tried to appeal against the charges - and the increase of those fines - but, because he’d only just found out about the fines, it was now too late to appeal against them.
“When I tried to appeal against those fines with the council, I discovered that because I have only just found out about penalties for offences that took place in December 2022 and January of this year, that I was outside the bounds of their appeals process and so simply had to pay,” he said, adding that he’s now written an email appealing to Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees to ask for help sort this out.
“Currently I owe Bristol Council nearly £1,000 for offences I had no idea I was committing,” he said. “There’s no appeals process, even though as a frequent visitor I had no information to suggest this new rule was in place, or how it would affect me.
“It’s a crippling fine, especially given the current cost of living crisis, and while as above I’m a big fan of clean air acts for cities, the implementation and running of this one feels grossly unfair. It’s bad for visitors, and it's bad for Bristol,” he added.
Bristol City Council said the payment system is managed nationally and, like other cities outside of London, does not have the capacity or resources for people to set up accounts with bank details so they are automatically charged.
The council said it is the responsibility of every driver to know if or when they have entered the CAZ, and it’s the driver’s responsibility to find out if their vehicle is liable to pay it. “You will not be notified if you have driven in the zone and it's your responsibility to pay any charges,” the council said. “There are road signs that tell you if you are approaching or entering the Clean Air Zone. These are at regular intervals as you approach the zone boundary. Signs have a clearly marked green cloud with the letter ‘D' inside.”
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- Bristol Clean Air Zone petition sees thousands call for scheme to be scrapped
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