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

[NichyNoo]

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 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?

@NeonJellyBaby

Surely it can’t just be me who wonders why anyone would want to go on a mini break to Birmingham? It’s the most god awful, depressing concrete shit hole with absolutely no redeeming features.

When was the last time you went to Birmingham?

@ancientgran
Do you know if the German Christmas Market is on this year? That is good fun. Best hot chocolate I've ever tasted.

Last I heard was that it’s being planned but the council are keeping an eye on how things are going with Covid before making a final decision and announcing it.

@Sunnygold

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?

You can pay after. Also, as PP have said, alot of cars are actually exempt.

You can check here:
vehiclecheck.drive-clean-air-zone.service.gov.uk/vehicle_checkers/enter_details

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 is exactly what I was about to say. Any indication of a clean air zone or similar that was anywhere near me and I'd be checking as soon as I could what it was and if I was affected even if I thought the sign indicated it was only to my left and not on the road I was on.

The signs (if you see them) give very minimal info TBF. ‘Pay online’ . Great. Where?
What if you don’t do ‘online’ ?

I did not know this :O good to know

There a thing on line that you put your car reg in and it will tell you if you have to pay
It’s for diesel cars under 2014 /2015 and petrol cars below 2007 I think
My son has a 2014 diesel but because of when it was registered he misses it by 3 months
If it was a euro6 rather than Euro 5 he would have been fine
I think Bath Portsmouth and Bristol are all bringing this in this year

This happened to me recently (well, actually DH drove my car to Birmingham whilst I was at work)...I rang them up to try and pay over the phone a couple of weeks later after I randomly read about it on FB but they said the penalty charge was already in the post

Once it arrived though, it basically said they were being lenient because it was new gave me the option to pay the original £8 at a post office or Paypoint within 7 days which I did

I was going to contest it anyway as it's not really widely known about outside the Birmingham area. I'm only 50-odd miles away in Leicestershire and had never heard of it

We’ll incase anyone is visiting Oxford, here’s heads up of the new Zero Emission Zone “ZEZ” pilot which apparently starts this month and will expand in 2022.
www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/roads-and-transport/connecting-oxfordshire/oxford-zero-emission-zone

@Blossomtoes it's not paranoia
Birmingham state cars must be Euro4 emissions standard, mine was built prior to that (just) and is euro3, yet the govt website say it's fine. I can read the emissions on my MOT certificate (also held online by gov.uk) where it quite clearly states the emissions which are higher than those accepted.
So I am somewhat dubious about whether I'd be charged or not.
My car is eight years old, petrol. Others on here have said theirs is older and exempt, but have they tested that?

And I would really like to know, ASI have to go into the city this week. How is it any better for me to drive 3 miles to a station, park and take the train, and drive back? I live 3 miles from the city, so still the same amount of distance driving.

@KingsHeathen

And I would really like to know, ASI have to go into the city this week. How is it any better for me to drive 3 miles to a station, park and take the train, and drive back? I live 3 miles from the city, so still the same amount of distance driving.

It's about reducing pollution in a highly polluted area. Not about how far you're driving (i.e amount of pollution you're creating) rather where you are creating the pollution, hence the term 'clean air zone'.

@DismantledKing

I really can’t see how anyone could have missed this. It’s been discussed on TV and in the newspapers.

I live around 40 minutes drive from Birmingham and I didn't know. Don't read newspapers and only see random news headlines on twitter. I don't watch the actual news because it's all, you know, covid. My local news covers East Midlands, not West. But then I wouldn't drive into Birmingham anyway because its a friggin nightmare.

[quote KingsHeathen]@Blossomtoes it's not paranoia
Birmingham state cars must be Euro4 emissions standard, mine was built prior to that (just) and is euro3, yet the govt website say it's fine. I can read the emissions on my MOT certificate (also held online by gov.uk) where it quite clearly states the emissions which are higher than those accepted.
So I am somewhat dubious about whether I'd be charged or not.
My car is eight years old, petrol. Others on here have said theirs is older and exempt, but have they tested that?[/quote]
Petrol cars have had to be Euro 4 since January 2006, and Euro 5 since 2011. How have you got an eight year old petrol car which is Euro 3?

@Goofers

The most annoying part of all this is that they’ve made the M6 through Birmingham a mandatory 60mph! Apparently the M6 Toll have done very well out of this…

You'd be lucky to get above 25 most days

I don't live in Birmingham and had never heard of this until this thread. The signs do look visible, but totally NOT explanatory. What is a clear air zone? Who has to pay? How much? None of that is clear to a non resident.

@Zhampagne it's a 63 plate... but I've just realised that's 2013 not 2003 isn't it... oh dear, I've lost ten years...
Yeah my car's probably fine to drive in

[quote KingsHeathen]@Blossomtoes it's not paranoia
Birmingham state cars must be Euro4 emissions standard, mine was built prior to that (just) and is euro3, yet the govt website say it's fine. I can read the emissions on my MOT certificate (also held online by gov.uk) where it quite clearly states the emissions which are higher than those accepted.
So I am somewhat dubious about whether I'd be charged or not.
My car is eight years old, petrol. Others on here have said theirs is older and exempt, but have they tested that?[/quote]
If your car was a new registration in 2013 it should be Euro 5.

Ha, cross-post! Glad the mystery is solved

@HumunaHey Outer Birmingham is very polluted too, really bad along arterial roads (that I would have to use to drive to a station).

@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

I think once you've checked in they can be pretty sure you're staying.

I didn't know Portsmouth had it and I'm just up the road 🤦‍♀️🤣

In fact up until 5 weeks ago I drove in every week for sons sport.

🤞 it's not as far out as we go

I rarely drive in England and would have absolutely no idea what a clean air zone is, those signs don't make it clear either. Trying to navigate a new city and figure out those signs with my dyslexia, nope, I'd have gotten a fine.
I've heard about the London congestion charges but other than that I don't go reading driving news for cities I'll rarely if ever visit.

www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones

Just in case the above link gets buried. You just put your registaration in and it tells you if you will be charged or not!

Bath
Birmingham
Plymouth isn't live yet

Panic over - Portsmouth isn't live yet (I knew they were starting at some point)

Plus I won't be going over the boundary.

The website says for Birmingham I have to pay.
For Portsmouth and Bath I don't

They have P and R just outside portsmouths CAZ and I hope they make the charge for that cheaper than the CAZ charge. Because otherwise they risk killing the city centre as that's the area surrounding the charge and also tourism because that's the main route through to the coast.