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Original poster

Who knew you had to pay to drive in Birmingham?????

232 replies

NichyNoo · 21/08/2021 14:14

Went to Birmingham recently for a weekend mini break. Received a penalty notice in the post today as apparently Birmingham is a clean air zone and you’re supposed to know this and pay £8 per day to drive in the city. I’m guessing another fine is in the post for the Sunday when we drove out of Birmingham. We didn’t see this advertised anywhere so no idea how we were supposed to know - two fines of £120 Shock I know about the london congestion charge but do any other cities have this charge to drive so we don’t get caught out again?

OP posts:
shinynewapple21 · 21/08/2021 20:03

I think they were talking about the stretch of the M6 around Birmingham @pleasekeeptotheright

ancientgran · 21/08/2021 20:43

@Muddydoor

The 11 is the outer ring road. The charges start at the inner ring road. I’m disabled in a way that I can walk loads but not drive which means Brum is open to me. My Mum is disabled in a way that means she can’t walk far and needs to drive so Brum is closed to her. No way could she afford a fancy new car.
Could she afford a 15 year old car? Is she exempt due to disability?
alexdgr8 · 21/08/2021 21:03

Galassia, you say it was 3 years ago you drove through London.
until june last year, the congestion charge did not apply at weekends.
norr after 6pm.
but it does now. every day, except xmas day. 7am to 10pm. £15. a day.
plus the £12.50 ULEZ if driving an applicable vehicle from 25th oct.
ULEZ reaches the borders of north and south circulars.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Driving & parking
hauntedvagina · 21/08/2021 21:10

@user1471530109

I also didn't know about this and live about 40 mins away (lived there for over 10 years until recently) and travel to the children's hospital once a year. How long has it been the case?

Those that are saying Portsmouth. I've just got back from Portsmouth! I didn't see any signs but I was trying to concentrate on sat Nav instructions...now worried (petrol qashqai).

OP, I agree that BCC haven't done a very good job of advertising the fact. I don't care if residents think they have been told. Surely Bham has 1000s of visitors weekly Hmm. (Tbf, I've driven in London loads and also never had a fine. Guessing you'd have to be driving an obvious massive diesel?).

If you're visiting a hospital, you can claim an exemption voucher from the receptionist when you arrive. You just log this online.
Danikm151 · 21/08/2021 22:11

You can’t drive a few minutes without seeing the clean air zone signs. They are everywhere! especially as you enter the ring road.
It’s been publicised for ages. A lot of cars are exempt but older cars tend not to be.

Sparklingbrook · 21/08/2021 22:17

@Danikm151

You can’t drive a few minutes without seeing the clean air zone signs. They are everywhere! especially as you enter the ring road. It’s been publicised for ages. A lot of cars are exempt but older cars tend not to be.
Don't make me drive into Birmingham to judge the visibility of the signs. Grin
Sunnygold · 21/08/2021 22:25

I’ve never heard about this. It only came into force about 10 weeks ago and I haven’t seen it in the news even though I read the headlines every day. If I was going to Birmingham I’d have driven there without realising, and even if I’d seen the signs I’d have no idea what they meant because I’m not familiar with the concept. Do you have to pay before you enter the city or can you pay after you’ve parked? Because if you’re driving when you see the signs how are you supposed to pay?

mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork · 21/08/2021 22:32

OP, haven't read full thread but London now has both a congestion charge and an ultra low emission charge, in case no-one else has said.

Original poster
NichyNoo · 21/08/2021 22:33

I have to respond regarding the criticism about not reading signs. Like I said upthread, I remember seeing a sign saying ‘clean air zone 90 years left’ but genuinely did not see a sign saying - ‘you are entering a clean air zone and need to pay £8, please check online if you’re exempt’. If I saw a sign saying that I’d have looked online. We were far too busy trying to figure out what lane we needed take to get off the Aston Expressway! A random sign about a clean air zone nearby does not tell me I need to pay to drive onwards. Ditto for the second PCN that I guess I’ll receive on Monday from when we drove from the NCP car park back to the motorway - no signs reminding us that we were in a clean air zone and asking if we’d paid. So we literally had no way of knowing on that day that we were in a chargeable zone so it seems unfair that we’ll be charged for a second day.

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 21/08/2021 22:36

@NichyNoo

I have to respond regarding the criticism about not reading signs. Like I said upthread, I remember seeing a sign saying ‘clean air zone 90 years left’ but genuinely did not see a sign saying - ‘you are entering a clean air zone and need to pay £8, please check online if you’re exempt’. If I saw a sign saying that I’d have looked online. We were far too busy trying to figure out what lane we needed take to get off the Aston Expressway! A random sign about a clean air zone nearby does not tell me I need to pay to drive onwards. Ditto for the second PCN that I guess I’ll receive on Monday from when we drove from the NCP car park back to the motorway - no signs reminding us that we were in a clean air zone and asking if we’d paid. So we literally had no way of knowing on that day that we were in a chargeable zone so it seems unfair that we’ll be charged for a second day.
If the hotel was within the zone they could have mentioned it at check in just in case you weren’t aware too.
Original poster
NichyNoo · 21/08/2021 22:38

It wasn’t mentioned on the hotel website which lists nearby car parks nor did they mention it at reception when they gave us a special ticket to use in the NCP which gives a reduced rate at the NCP car park Angry

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 21/08/2021 22:40

@NichyNoo

It wasn’t mentioned on the hotel website which lists nearby car parks nor did they mention it at reception when they gave us a special ticket to use in the NCP which gives a reduced rate at the NCP car park Angry
I thinks that’s really rubbish of the hotel. People might choose to stay in a different hotel to avoid extra costs.
pleasekeeptotheright · 21/08/2021 22:42

"I thinks that’s really rubbish of the hotel. People might choose to stay in a different hotel to avoid extra costs."

Well yeah, that's why they don't advertise it Grin

namesnamesnamesnames · 21/08/2021 22:45

Wow I'm glad I saw this post. I had no idea and wouldn't have understood the signs. I keep up with news and listen to news radio, but can't recall learning this before. I live in the sticks, nothing like it here.

Sparklingbrook · 21/08/2021 22:45

@pleasekeeptotheright

"I thinks that’s really rubbish of the hotel. People might choose to stay in a different hotel to avoid extra costs."

Well yeah, that's why they don't advertise it Grin

Well when guests start mentioning it on Trip Advisor they might have to…
Catnuzzle · 21/08/2021 22:46

If you pay it within 7 days, you only get charged the original £8. Have to pay at a post office, not on line. There is currently a grace period whilst the system becomes common knowledge. We got one through the post the morning we went on a week's holiday. Lucky we set off late and the post was early!

CornishTiger · 21/08/2021 22:46

We stayed in bath recently and had a panic whether we had to pay.

Wasn’t mentioned at all by hotel.

saraclara · 21/08/2021 22:53

@DismantledKing

I really can’t see how anyone could have missed this. It’s been discussed on TV and in the newspapers.
That's such an incredibly insular thing to say. I'm a news junkie, I spend way too much time online. But I didn't know this. Maybe because I don't live in Birmingham nor have any reason to go there. If it ever made the national news, I can only imagine it was right near the bottom of one report one day. If like OP, I decided to have a mini-break there, there is absolutely no reason why I would have heard about this. Still less know what those signs actually mean for me.

Out of interest, what do you know about traffic control in Glasgow? how about Plymouth? Norwich?

Original poster
NichyNoo · 21/08/2021 22:54

@Catnuzzle

If you pay it within 7 days, you only get charged the original £8. Have to pay at a post office, not on line. There is currently a grace period whilst the system becomes common knowledge. We got one through the post the morning we went on a week's holiday. Lucky we set off late and the post was early!
There was nothing in the PCN letter to suggest this (and I’ve re-read multiple times) so I’ve paid the £60 online and I guess will do the same for the second PCN I’ll receive next week.
OP posts:
BecauseMyRingBurnsSheila · 21/08/2021 22:55

My preference of cities in order

Manchester
Birmingham

Coventry

Now that is a concrete shithole and sadly my nearest city

BecauseMyRingBurnsSheila · 21/08/2021 23:03

I only know about it because my friend's husband (who lives in Birmingham) was complaining about not being able to afford a new car and theirs is an old diesel. But as a West Midlander no I hadn't seen it on the news and I'm a boring local news junkie.

However I do love Angry People in Local Newspapers so I expect there will be a few angry faces in the coming months.

mofro · 21/08/2021 23:17

Deffo go to a pay point shop and only pay £8 - I did mine yesterday after getting the same letter!

It’s being so badly executed!

shinynewapple21 · 21/08/2021 23:28

@NichyNoo

I have to respond regarding the criticism about not reading signs. Like I said upthread, I remember seeing a sign saying ‘clean air zone 90 years left’ but genuinely did not see a sign saying - ‘you are entering a clean air zone and need to pay £8, please check online if you’re exempt’. If I saw a sign saying that I’d have looked online. We were far too busy trying to figure out what lane we needed take to get off the Aston Expressway! A random sign about a clean air zone nearby does not tell me I need to pay to drive onwards. Ditto for the second PCN that I guess I’ll receive on Monday from when we drove from the NCP car park back to the motorway - no signs reminding us that we were in a clean air zone and asking if we’d paid. So we literally had no way of knowing on that day that we were in a chargeable zone so it seems unfair that we’ll be charged for a second day.

You are right there OP that the signs don't tell you what the penalty is or how you are meant to pay it (well if they do it's in print too small to note as you drive past ). Where's your hotel?

JammyDozen · 21/08/2021 23:45

If you don’t understand the signs, wouldn’t you look online, when you’d completed your journey or it was safe to stop? I don’t understand why some posters have said they saw the signs but didn’t understand them so did nothing. Or can imagine that they would do nothing in this situation.

If I went somewhere with signs saying “such-and-such zone ahead. Charges apply” or similar I’d be googling it to check what it meant. This happened to me in London a few years ago. I didn’t know what the charges were, whether I’d actually entered the zone or anything else, but I checked when I could.

There are more and more of these sorts of schemes so I think we need to get used to informing ourselves when we travel. Between the signs, the information online and the fact you have several days to pay after, I’m not sure what more could be expected.

ThanksItHasPockets · 22/08/2021 00:10

If you drive a Euro 5 diesel (I assume?) you are likely to be clobbered by all of the new and forthcoming clean air zones, I’m afraid.