The government-mandated charging clean air zone (CAZ) in Portsmouth has now been launched by the city council.

The Portsmouth CAZ is a class B, meaning that ‘non-compliant’ vehicles will be issued a daily charge to drive in the zone.  For the Portsmouth CAZ ‘non-compliant’ vehicles are buses, coaches, taxi, private hire vehicles and heavy goods vehicles that do not meet euro 6 standards if diesel, or euro 4 standard if petrol. Non-compliant taxis and private hire vehicles will be charged £10 per day to drive through the zone, and non-compliant buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles will pay £50 per day.

Last Friday, the air quality improvement team held an Air Quality Improvement Showcase that brought together a range of air quality schemes from across Portsmouth City Council as well as the rest of the city.

Visitors to the Cascades Centre were able to ask Portsmouth City Council’s air improvement quality team any questions they had about the CAZ and other measures to reduce air pollution. Children were able to take part in a colouring competition to show what cleaner air means to them.

Representatives from First bus, Stagecoach and Pedal Portsmouth were in attendance to talk about ways people can travel around the city without adding to air pollution. Southsea Cycles attended to talk about their community e-cargo bike scheme where Portsmouth residents can hire a cargo bike for £10 a day. There was also a Ford Mustang Mach-E, to show people what the future of electric vehicles looks like.

Cllr Dave Ashmore, Cabinet Member for Community Safety & Environment, said: “Today is the day the clean air zone launches, but we should be speaking about air quality every day. There are so many ways we can all make a difference to the air quality in our city. It might be using public transport more, ditching the second car and joining a car club, making your next vehicle electric, or walking, catching the bus or renting an e-scooter for your next short journey.

“As a council we’re working on creating the best possible conditions for these changes, from installing on-street electric car charging points and bicycle parking to extending the rental e-scooter trial and prioritising walking and cycling routes for residents.”