A man fears he will have to sell his home and could lose his job after driving into a Clean Air Zone up to 30 times without realising.
Henry Franklin, of Bristol, believed his car complied with the council’s rules when he drove into the city’s CAZ for his job in Hewish.
But the 36-year-old faces losing everything after being fined £4,000 so far for his trips over the past month.
Now he must stump up the huge fine and buy a new motor that complies with the rules, or fork out more of fuel on longer, gas-guzzling commutes to avoid the CAZ.
‘I live paycheque to paycheque. If all these fines are upheld, I’m looking at roughly £4,000 to pay,’ he said.
‘That will certainly mean I have to sell my car and quit my job. It will also likely mean I have to sell up and leave Bristol.’
He added: ‘I felt angry, frustrated and tired when I realised I was going to be fined. This new system is confusing for a number of reasons. I can’t fathom why they’ve chosen the area they have for the CAZ, other than to generate lots of fines.
‘A clean air zone in a densely populated area like Easton, St Paul’s or Bedminster. But they choose the centre, which is relatively sparsely populated.’
Henry blasted Bristol City Council for only sending out fines after the six-day grace period had ended.
He said he now drives a longer route to avoid paying the CAZ fee, which means his commute is ‘far longer’ and now ‘worse for the environment’.
He added: ‘I felt frustrated because I bought a new car to get to a new job and despite my best efforts, the council has designed a system that is difficult to understand.
‘I hasten to add, though, that I’ve appealed every PCN (penalty charge notice) I’ve had so far, but the council hasn’t yet acted on them.’
Bristol City Council is reviewing the ‘case and the appeals’ made.
Daily charges for cars in the CAZ cost £9 for those who pay ahead, with signs in place to warn motorists they are about to enter the area.
The total cost of driving in Bristol’s CAZ without paying is £129 per day after the grace period ended on January 8, or £69 if the fine is paid within 14 days.
News of Henry’s plight comes as Birmingham’s own CAZ was last week thrown into disarray after it emerged almost 70,000 fines have been written off by the city council.
Nearly 50,000 CAZ fines have been successfully challenged by drivers since the launch of Birmingham’s controversial scheme which will net the council a whopping £50million profit by the end of this year.
The council has backed down and overturned a huge 48,256 penalty charge notices after motorists refused to pay because they believed them to be unfair – the authority has given up on chasing around another 20,000.
The number of fines overturned is only until the end of last year – meaning the exact total is likely even higher. In addition, fines which have only recently been appealed will still be being processed.
Almost 70,000 fines in total have been written off by council bosses, including those which were successfully challenged. The huge number of penalties cancelled by the authority once again raises questions about the running of the CAZ.
It means around 2,700 PCNs have been cancelled every month on average since the launch of the CAZ in June 2021 – with more likely still being processed from the end of 2022.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
