Newcastle's clean air zone charges come into force

Drivers of the worst-polluting lorries, buses and taxis will now be charged to enter Newcastle city centre.

Those who fail to pay to enter the designated Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will be fined.

Taxis, private hire vehicles, buses, coaches and HGVs will be charged between £12.50 and £50 a day.

Newcastle City Council says it had to act after a legal order was issued by government to reduce "illegal levels of air pollution caused by traffic".

The CAZ covers Newcastle city centre and routes over the Tyne, Swing, Redheugh and High Level bridges.

Charges and fines will not apply to private cars, motorbikes or any vehicles that comply with national emissions standards.

First mooted in 2018, the CAZ was intended to be operational in 2021 until the Covid pandemic set it back.

Early plans had considered imposing charges for all cars and introducing tolls on bridges before the public had their say.

In 2019, 19,000 people completed a survey on the proposals - more than responded to a similar consultation in London - and the idea of charging private cars was later dropped.

Leader of Newcastle City Council Nick Kemp said he appreciated the charges would be unpopular but the authority had no choice.

"Central government says we must impose a CAZ and we're acting on the most polluting vehicles. Private cars are exempt but taxi drivers, HGV's and buses could be liable to pay.

"It's not about preventing people coming into the city, it's really about stopping unnecessary journeys through the city centre and ensuring we have better vehicles providing public service."

Mr Kemp believes the introduction of fines will have an impact on air quality and improve the "quality of life for residents and visitors."

Under the CAZ scheme, the following daily charges will apply for non-compliant vehicles:

The council says grants are available towards the cost of making vehicles compliant.

Keith Grimes, whose bus company does school visits to the city's museums, said the grant is of no use to him so he will have to pay the new £50 charge on every trip.

"The £20,000 exhaust system needed to meet the new standards is not available for this sort of coach.

"It has already been adapted to take two classes of schoolchildren out and I think the fine is a cost we've got no choice but to pass onto the customers.

"For a coach like mine it's about an extra £1 per child.

"I think many schools will now reconsider where they are going to," the coach owner said.

Anil Namdeo, professor of air quality management at Northumbria University, said air pollution was "one of the biggest public threats in the world" and linked to between 28,000 to 36,000 premature deaths every year in the UK.

He added action had to be taken to protect vulnerable people such as children and the elderly.

"We are on a long journey, clean air is a fundamental right and banning the most polluting vehicles from cities are among the steps to be taken.

"Air pollution is an invisible killer, back in the 1950s we could see the smog in London but times have changed and we're now looking at micro particles which go deep into our lungs."

In Newcastle, income from CAZ will be primarily used to cover the scheme's running costs with leftover money used to improve public transport and cycling and walking schemes.

Charges for non-compliant light goods vehicles and vans will be introduced in July, and while there are no plans to charge private cars Newcastle City Council says "is possible that this could change in the future", depending on the impact of the clean air measures.

It adds any decision to charge cars in future would be subject to further public consultation.

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