Ambulances charged for entering clean-air zone

Telegraph

15-02-2025

Police cars, fire engines and ambulances responding to life-and-death 999 calls are to be charged for entering a Somerset low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN).
From March, emergency services which do not meet the local council's emission standards will have to pay to enter the city.
Bath and North East Somerset Council introduced a so-called Clean Air Zone (CAZ) – another name for an LTN – in 2021. It granted a four-year suspension on charges to emergency responders and support vehicles to allow them time to 'update' their fleet.
The suspension will come to an end on March 14, but it has meant the fire authority has had to ask for a £4.8 million investment in its fleet over three years.
Avon Fire Authority has warned that more than half of its emergency vehicles, including fire engines, are not compliant, adding that it will take another six years before the entire fleet can drive without incurring LTN charges in the city.
A capital programme report published this February by the fire authority says electric and hydrogen vehicles used to fight fires cost twice as much as those that use 'internal combustion'.
The report says: 'New technology vehicles (electric and hydrogen) are roughly 100 per cent more expensive than the cost of the equivalent internal combustion vehicles, across both the car and commercial vehicle market.
'The level of CAZ-compliant vehicles within the station-based appliance fleet is currently 40 per cent because of the fleet replacement programme.
'The proposed capital investment in further vehicle procurement and the continual introduction of lower or zero-emission vehicles within our CAZs will achieve 48 per cent Clean Air Zone compliance across the appliance fleet by March 2026. A further 24 specialist operational vehicles are currently 21 per cent CAZ-compliant.
'The life cycle and appliance replacement programme for the turntable ladders, as an example, will not achieve clean-air compliant emissions until 2030. Current expectation is the fleet will be CAZ-compliant by 2031.'
Impacted vehicles 'limited'
Private cars and motorbikes are not charged to enter the zone, no matter how much pollution they emit, although higher-emission taxis and private hire cars are.
The council, however, claims only a limited number of emergency vehicles will be affected by the charge.
Cllr Sarah Warren, the council's deputy leader and cabinet member for climate emergency and sustainable travel, told the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service the authority had 'worked closely' with emergency service providers to support them during the introduction of the LTN.
She added: 'This exemption has allowed emergency service organisations four additional years to consider the steps that could be taken to prepare for the end of the exemption, including vehicle upgrade, retrofit and fleet redistribution, and we are supportive of the changes that have been made to date.
'All parties have been aware from the start that this exemption was due to end in March 2025 and our dialogue with the emergency services to date indicates that, because of the progress made in the last four years, a limited number of vehicles will be impacted by this local exemption ending.
'We are continuing our conversations regarding these vehicles.'
A fire service spokesman said it was 'in negotiations' with the council. An Avon and Somerset Police statement said the LTN had 'informed' its choice of 'vehicle replacement'.
'As a result, our fleet team has put cleaner and more efficient vehicles on the road,' he continued.
'Our fleet now includes more than 200 hybrid and electric vehicles operating within local communities.'