‘Bristol’s Clean Air Zone is a ruse to maximise council revenue’

I have what the trendy folk call a ‘portfolio’ career.

I am an academic/teacher, run a rock n roll band, do crew work (stage and sound) and teach in local schools (supply). I also am trying to set up a new business using my six-seater flatbed truck for local work like furniture, rubbish and garden clearance.

I live in central Bristol and have residents parking on my road. Three other streets are listed on my permit, but there is never parking on any of the others and one of them has been coned off for ‘bicycle lanes’ since Covid in a ‘temporary’ measure so it actually has no parking.

Every day I curse the council for their terrible traffic planning which has greatly increased traffic congestion and pollution in our local area.

I walk my child to primary school every day. When we moved here more than five years ago, there were rarely any queues in our local area because traffic flowed more easily. Now there are solid queues in the morning, lunchtime and rush hour.

When I first moved here, you could park as a resident in the local streets more easily. Now if you move your vehicle you always worry if you will be able to find anywhere legal when you get back (despite having a legal permit).

Now the council want to charge us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year every time we move our vehicle when the Clean Air Zone begins on Monday.

This means that the first hour (and maybe the last hour) of every day I work if I use my vehicle goes to the council.

No matter when I work, where I drive or what I am doing. Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, regardless of emissions or traffic. If I drive back into the city after an out of town show at 3am in the morning, I will be charged.

My vehicle runs LPG gas which is between ten and 17 per cent less emitting than diesel and petrol. The council makes no allowance for this.

My vehicle pays road tax and has an MOT every year (including emissions tests) which makes it legal. The council makes no allowance for this.

My vehicle is more than 20 years old so I have to pay. I am self employed and I cannot easily (or with any financial incentive) replace my vehicle which I spent a year looking for to fulfil all my needs – band, work, crewing, family, safety, LPG etc. The council makes no allowance for this.

I pay road tax, insurance, residence parking etc. The council makes no allowance for this. If I was rich, and drove a Tesla, I’d drive for free.

The council say that the government forced them to do this. As other places which have repealed this new tax on the poor have shown, this is not true.

I also regularly also drive to Portsmouth when my father lives in their Clean Air Zone. They do not charge my vehicle.

Bristol has chosen a specific use of regulations in order to maximise revenue. I will have to pay the charge whatever I do.

Let us assume my vehicle is a high emissions vehicle (which it is not). I am forced to pay the tax, but I continue causing high emissions. How is this solving the problem of emissions? The council get rich, the environment is the same.

If the council wanted to improve emissions in our area, they would remove all the coned-off areas which greatly increase congestion and emissions, adjust their traffic light settings (to accord to the time of day and traffic flow) and remove additional traffic lights which were put on roundabouts and give residents a place to park so we didn’t have to drive around, or wait for hours to park where we live.

As you may have noticed, I am furious about Bristol City Council on an hourly basis. I mostly walk or cycle around the city and only use my vehicle when I need to.

I am a normal person who lives and works in our city, but this council has deliberately made my life worse on almost every level.

Dr Marcus Dahl is a Shakespeare scholar, academic and teacher with an interest in philosophy and music

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• Bristol residents react to the Clean Air Zone
• Is Bristol prepared for the Clean Air Zone?
• First bus branded a ‘cancer’ by furious passengers

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