Many disabled people will be left “trapped in their homes” because they can’t afford Bristol’s impending Clean Air Zone charges or to upgrade their specially adapted vehicles to avoid them, councillors heard. But mayor Marvin Rees has rejected calls to seek government approval to extend exemptions for blue badge holders beyond next March and attacked opposition councillors for “political opportunism” by failing to raise the concerns until now.
A “caged” demonstrator in a wheelchair was part of a protest by Bristol Disability Equality Forum outside City Hall ahead of a council meeting on Tuesday (October 18), with the group holding a banner saying “Caged by the clean air zone”. Forum climate projects coordinator Emma Green told Bristol full council: “The scheme could mean many lose access to a car, be trapped in their homes and face fines that will drive them even deeper into poverty.
“The equality impact assessment on the CAZ recognised that disabled people will be disproportionately impacted. Despite this, insufficient mitigations have been put in place.
Read more: Clean Air Zone will 'cut the city in two', says driver ahead of launch
“There isn’t enough financial support available to get a vehicle that can be used in the zone. People have to work or volunteer for a certain number of hours to be eligible.
“Even if a person does qualify, £2,000 won’t be enough to re-adapt a car when re-adaptations and new vehicles can be £40,000.” She said action on clean air was vital but the cost must not be residents’ independence.
Speaking earlier during Bristol City Council member forum, Green Cllr Tim Wye said the CAZ was one way to tackle Bristol’s poor air quality but that the needs of those with disabilities had not been fully catered for. He said: “Too many exemptions could undermine the scheme and will be an administrative burden, however, I do not imagine that ensuring disabled people still have access to our city will generate a significant number of journeys.”
Ashley ward Cllr Wye said the council should reconsider the support for disabled people and work with the forum on the best approach. Mr Rees said the CAZ exemption for blue badge holders and hospital patients had already been extended until March 31, 2023, and could not be changed further.
The Labour mayor told the opposition councillor: “Any further extension would likely result in not meeting our legally mandated time-frame for air quality compliance. The more mitigations you put into the CAZ, the less tight you make the CAZ, and by definition the less tight the CAZ, the later the date of compliance.
“We worked on the Clean Air Zone for years. We constantly raised the issue about unintended consequences of the CAZ. While we were doing that and negotiating with the Government for a £42million package to support people to transition – low-income people, vulnerable people, the impact on businesses and on hospitals – not once did anyone from your party say ‘Actually it is the right thing to do to think about unintended consequences’.
“All we had, even recently, was ‘You’re delaying it, you’re missing the deadlines, how can we get some Twitter points out of this by saying they don’t really care?’ Not once has anyone from your party said ‘Hold on, there could be some unintended negative consequences for some people.
“So for you to turn up after the fact and start raising these issues is a bit rich. I’m happy to talk with you and the disability forum about those mitigations because that's what we’re in the business of doing but we’re going to have to do it in a better spirit than political opportunism.
“Your party was phenomenally gung-ho, even talking about a city-wide CAZ at one point. So get with the spirit. If we’re positive in the spirit and we approach this with integrity then we’ll have that chat.” The CAZ begins on November 28, over a year late.
Read next:
How much Bristol Clean Air Zone fines will be as scheme about to start
Applications for Clean Air Zone temporary exemptions open
Fears raised that Bristol is 'becoming like London' as Clean Air Zone due to start
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