Portsmouth clean air zone charges to begin in November

Portsmouth's clean air zone scheme is on schedule to come into force at the end of November.

High-polluting private hire vehicles and taxis will be charged £10, while buses, coaches and lorries face a £50 fee for travelling through the zone, in the south-west of the city.

Portsmouth City Council is expected to approve a legal order to bring in these new rules from 29 November.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed in March.

The 39 ANPR cameras will check number plates driving through the zone and have been placed on existing lamp columns and traffic signal poles.

Councillor Dave Ashmore, cabinet member for environment, said the clean air zone was "not our preferred option", but it was being forced on the city by the government.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council was issued a ministerial directive in 2020 ordering it to set up the zone because of breaches in nitrogen dioxide levels.

The authority has since been allocated £6.6m to improve the air quality in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth will be the third area in the country to bring in a clean air zone, following Bath and North East Somerset, and Birmingham. Other cities have also been told to introduce them.

Mr Ashmore said: "We've been working hard to make sure anyone that may be charged has been informed and supported, and in many cases we've been able to offer support for owners to upgrade their non-compliant vehicles."

Vehicles that will be charged for driving through the zone include any diesel vehicles that do not meet Euro 6 emission standards - likely to have been registered before September 2015, and petrol vehicles that do not conform to Euro 4 emission standards - generally registered before 1 January 2006.

Private cars and vans are not currently included in the forthcoming daily charges.

A Defra spokesperson said: "Tackling high pollution levels is a serious challenge for communities across the UK which is why we are supporting them to take urgent action to clean up our air.

They added: "We are working closely with local authorities to introduce clean air zones so we can help them to target the pollution affecting their communities - to protect ourselves and the environment."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].