Bristol’s Clean Air Zone cameras will be switched off on the busiest road in the zone if thousands of motorists are diverted off the M5 and have to drive into it, Bristol Live can reveal. Motorists won’t be liable for the charge or be fined if they enter the Clean Air Zone in Bristol because they’ve been diverted away from an incident on the M5 on the Avonmouth Bridge.
Bristol City Council has confirmed that the cameras at the entrances to the Clean Air Zone on the southbound side of the A4 Portway and on the downhill side of Bridge Valley Road, as well as the cameras clocking motorists entering the zone from North Somerset on the A370 Brunel Way, will be switched off in the event that the M5 Avonmouth Bridge is closed.
The A3029 Brunel Way from Ashton Gate to Hotwells over the Cumberland Basin is already Bristol’s busiest A-road, and its inclusion in the Clean Air Zone has been one of the more controversial elements of the zone project, which starts on Monday (November 28).
Read more: Thousands of drivers 'caught' in Clean Air Zone every day in council test
The Plimsoll Bridge and Avon Bridge over the Cumberland Basin and River Avon is the next major road bridge river crossing upstream from the M5 Avonmouth Bridge, and if the motorway is closed and that closure includes the Avonmouth Bridge between junction 18 for Avonmouth and 19 for Portishead, then traffic on the motorway is diverted into Bristol and usually over the Cumberland Basin.
When its inclusion was announced a couple of years ago, questions were asked about what would happen if the M5 was closed and the usual diversion was put in place, which some councillors said happens several times a year. In March 2021, opposition councillors raised the possibility that thousands of motorists would be fined through no fault of their own if the M5 was diverted down the Portway and over the Cumberland Basin.
Back then, Cllr Tim Kent (Lib Dem, Hengrove and Whitchurch) said: “I think taking one more look at how we handle the Portway is reasonable. It is actually the overflow, the redirection route for when the motorway is closed, which we know it’s not that regular but can occur once or twice a year. Forcing, potentially, tens of thousands of people into a charging zone could present us with considerable legal problems.
“I can actually see the government potentially rejecting this element of the boundary potentially because of that reason," he added at the time, during a discussion about the extent of the CAZ area. "I also think that the danger of additional rat-running, additional pollution on the edges of the Clean Air Zone is a real one.”
Now, Bristol Live can reveal that the next time this happens, the Clean Air Zone cameras will simply be switched off wherever the diverted traffic is diverted into the CAZ. A council spokesperson said: “A diversion off the M5 would be a special circumstance and we would not be charging or fining drivers who have to make a diversion into the Clean Air Zone.
“We have arrangements in place with Highways England in that instance, and the cameras would be switched off where applicable. If it is the case that a motorist was diverted and reached the Clean Air Zone before the cameras were switched off on that day, there will be a simple process to appeal this to make sure the motorist was not charged or fined,” she added.
The council is warning against the prospect of local motorists driving non-compliant vehicles past switched-off cameras, taking advantage of what could be considered a ‘free-hit’ to be able to drive into the Clean Air Zone.
For a start, traffic on the A4 Portway, over the Cumberland Basin and A370 Brunel Way would almost certainly be very slow moving because of the M5 diversion, and also any driver taking advantage of the inoperational cameras risked being caught by another camera somewhere else in the CAZ area, and being clocked on their return journey if the closure of the M5 and the subsequent diversion had ended.
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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