Birmingham City Council has been accused of sneaking in plans to introduce workplace parking taxes and charges for diesel cars.

Opposition Conservative transport spokesman Timothy Huxtable claimed the Labour run city council planned to charge motorist as part of plans for a clean air zone in the city centre.

He said the authority could look at a workplace parking levy or charges for privately owned diesel cars following the introduction of a Birmingham city centre Clean Air Zone (CAZ) in 2019.

Asked by Government what other measures could be considered the council responded: “Locally the use of other forms of road user charging scheme such as workplace parking levy could be used in combination with a CAZ to have a greater impact on vehicle usage in our cities.”

But these are measures which have been expressly rejected by the council leader John Clancy and ruled out in a recent vote by the full council and wondered if they are being worked on or ‘sneaked in’ by officials in the background.

Workplace charges have been previously ruled out as it is thought this would have a massive negative impact on city centre businesses and visitors.

But the Labour cabinet member Lisa Trickett responded that clean air zone is about solving the pollution public health crisis which claims 900 lives a year. She stressed that they have merely said they could look at it in future if the CAZ does not work, not adopted a new policy.

Cllr Huxtable (Bournville), who issued a formal challenge to the cabinet, said: “There appears to be a conflict between statements made by the leader in public and this letter to Government.”

Councillor Timothy Huxtable

“We need clarity,” said his colleague Cllr Ken Wood (Cons, Sutton New Hall). They stressed they support the CAZ, but not further measures.

The Labour cabinet member for the environment Cllr Trickett responded that the proposals are about tackling pollution and not about road spacing or traffic congestion. She pointed out the CAZ only applies to heavy polluting commercial vehicles, including buses, coaches and lorries.

She likened the public health impact of traffic pollution to open sewers and sending children up chimneys in Victorian times.

“The clean air zone is in response to a 21st Century public health disaster. There are 900 premature deaths in this city. I would be failing the children and citizens in this city if we do not move forward on clean air,” Cllr Tricket said.

She also pointed out that Birmingham faces a £60 million fine if pollution levels are not reduced by 2020.

And added that the workplace levy charge was mentioned only as something which could be considered in future if the CAZ did not achieve the pollution targets.

Coun Lisa Trickett.
Coun Lisa Trickett.