Drivers who enter the Clean Air Zone in Bristol when it begins on Monday won't automatically receive a fine - they will have six days to pay the charge and avoid getting a penalty charge notice.
Bristol City Council has revealed that the scheme is being set up to allow for drivers who unexpectedly find themselves driving into the Clean Air Zone, those who entered it without realising, or those who didn't know about the scheme before they set off on their journey.
It means that people can retrospectively pay the charge after they have made their journey - and as long as they pay the charge quickly, they won't get a fine letter through the post. But, unlike the system in London, there is no ability in Bristol for drivers to set up their registration number and bank details to automatically pay the charges whenever they have incurred them.
Read more: Only a fraction of drivers affected by Bristol Clean Air Zone have applied for help
The Clean Air Zone begins at straight after midnight on Sunday night into Monday morning, and has been years in the debating and suffered from long delays and controversy of the extent of the zone, the exemptions and the logistics of how it will work. Bristol Live has already revealed the council will operate a six-week 'grace' period from the start on Monday November 28 until the second Monday of January, which will give people the chance to just pay the charge rather than be fined.
And now the council has confirmed that, long-term, there will permanently be a system that enables drivers who have entered the Clean AIr Zone without paying the charge can simply pay the charge quickly afterwards, and not be fined.
Drivers of older diesel and petrol cars and smaller vans will have to pay £9 a day to travel around the Clean Air Zone, while those driving bigger vans, trucks, lorries, coaches and buses that are over 7.5 tonnes and also not compliant with the CAZ emission levels will have to pay £100 a day. If they do so without paying those charges they will be liable for a £120 fine - and pay the charge on top anyway - but there will be a way for people to not get fined.
The council has confirmed to Bristol Live that the system of making payments for the charge will be set up so anyone who knows they will be travelling into the Clean Air Zone in a non-compliant vehicle can log on to the Clean Air Zone website and pay the charge up to six days in advance of the day in question - and also go online and pay up to six days AFTER they have driven in the CAZ.
Penalty charge notices will only be triggered to be sent out on the seventh day after the journey into the Clean Air Zone was made, with drivers - from January - given the option of paying a fine reduced by half - so £60 instead of £120 if they pay within seven days.
Several Bristol Live readers have questioned why the Clean Air Zone has not been set up like London's Congestion Charge and ULEZ zone, where drivers can register their vehicle details and bank details on a website and have the charge money automatically taken out of their accounts every time they are liable to pay the charge. A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said the scale and resources for the systems set up to administer the Clean Air Zone in Bristol are not large enough to allow that kind of London-style system, and added that every other Clean Air Zone scheme, including those in Birmingham and Bath, also do not include this facility.
Read next:
- Where the borders for the scheme will fall street by street
- When will the CAZ charges operate
- Clean Air Zone start date finally announced
- Clean Air Zone fee and how people will be charged
- Bristol Clean Air Zone timeline: the story so far as start date finally announced
- Thousands of drivers 'caught' in Clean Air Zone every day in council test
- Camera error sends Clean Air Zone warning letters to drivers who've never been to Bristol
- Clean Air Zone and underground metro will make cycling safer claim council chiefs
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