'I've been hit with £3,000 in fines for driving to work - I'm at my wits end'
A woman says she racked up £3,000-worth of Emission Zone fines after taking too long to settle the charge. Bristol resident Cleo Burrows has had so many CAZ notices she’s at her wits’ end - and says she doesn't know what to do next.
She thought she had six days after receiving a letter confirming a trip through a Clean Air Zone in which to pay the required £9 charge for a non-compliant vehicle. But now she's been landed with dozens of fines after she started receiving them in April.
She told BristolLive: “I’m a really fair person and I own a diesel car which is not compliant so I have to pay the diesel charge to travel into Bristol. I don’t have an issue with that at all. I have a small business and I’m really busy so when CAZ started, I thought I had a safety net of getting a letter and having six days to pay."
“I had been working a lot and was shocked when I got this letter saying I would have to pay £60. I started getting a whole bunch of letters coming almost every day from April up until June,” she added.
“I called them the other day and was really shocked to hear that I have fines of over £2,900. It was such a massive shock. I thought the letter gave you six days to pay. I find it all a bit complicated and I have so many letters now that I feel so confused. It’s got me in a complete muddle,” she said.
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Drivers do have six days to pay after entering the CAZ, but by the time a letter is sent out it is for the fine - not the original charge. She added that the council had offered to set up a payment plan for her to settle the fines, but even that was unaffordable for her.
She said: “I also go into London regularly but you can open an account with ULEZ and put your card details. Every time I go to London the charge is automatically debited which makes it much easier. I have a hectic schedule and often work from 7am to 7pm, but now I’m being vigilant and trying not to go through town. It’s been so stressful."
According to the Bristol City Council website, the daily charge can be paid up to six days before travel, on the day of travel, or within six days after travel. Failure to pay the daily charge will result in a penalty charge notice of £120. This is reduced to £60 if the PCN is paid within two weeks.
When Bristol's CAZ was implemented in November 2022, there were temporary exemptions for local vehicles to give residents time to prepare. These included private passenger cars, vans or LGVs not registered with a business, which had a temporary exemption until 1 April 2023.
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