The main route used to access a cross-Solent ferry terminal is set to be included in Portsmouth’s Clean Air Zone, which will go live towards the end of this year – but coach operators fear that the decision should have been delayed to allow firms to recover from COVID-19.
Some drivers heading to Wightlink’s Portsmouth car ferry terminal may end up paying up to £50 per day to travel through the zone, with hopes that the charges will decrease traffic and improve the level of air pollution in the city centre.
Concerns about the amount of air pollution in and around some of the UK’s major cities are nothing new, with London introducing the congestion charge in February of 2003 in a bid to combat not only queues but also the number of harmful fumes in the air.
Plans for Portsmouth’s CAZ were put to consultation in July 2020 after the city was one of 60 earmarked by the Government, with local residents, businesses, and commuters able to share their thoughts on the scheme.
Luckily for the majority of Islanders and island-bound holidaymakers, private cars won’t be charged for entering the CAZ, with the fees limited to larger vehicles – with the ‘Euro’ emission standards being used to check for compliance.
Some HGV’s, buses and coaches will pay £50 per day, with some taxis and private hire vehicles being charged £10 per day. Portsmouth City Council has revealed that whilst there are no current plans to charge vans, that could change in the future due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Josh Harris, Director of Isle of Wight firm Wight Coaches, says:
“The implementation of the Clean Air Zone in Portsmouth will have a massive impact on both trade and tourism to the Isle of Wight.
Article continues below this advertisement “Although we have one of the most modern fleets of coaches on the Island, our coaches are still not compliant to the strict Euro6 emission regulations meaning we will be forced to pay £50.00 per day if we wish to travel through Portsmouth. This will affect groups coming to the Island but also local schools and groups going on coaches to the mainland.
“Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 pandemic also hitting the coach industry hard, we are not in a position to afford new Euro6 coaches which would be upwards of £100,000 each so we will be forced to be passing this expense of a daily charge to travel through Portsmouth onto our customers. The concern will be that with these costs being passed onto customers, they may choose to save money and travel to other destinations across the UK instead.
“I feel we are in the same position as a lot of other coach operators and coach holiday businesses that think this move by Portsmouth City Council should’ve been delayed whilst the industries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially where these industries have had very little government assistance anyway”.
The charges for travelling through the zone will be issued automatically thanks to automatic number plate cameras, which will track vehicles in and out of the zone, with motorists being billed once per day.
The automatic cameras are set to be erected over the course of the next month, with the clean air zone becoming active in November.
Bye bye Portsmouth! Hello Southampton! And when Southampton falls, hello lymington!
Not sure if you are aware yet but Yarmouth – Lymington is going fast cat in the next few years with the car ferry being discontinued forever. Anyway Lymingtn residents would not allow the extra traffic.
50 seater coach, one pound each. Is that going to break the bank?
They could have upgraded their fleet to be less polluting vehicles but I guess that would harm their profits.
Decided by public sector bureaucrats, administered by public sector bureaucrats, paid for and suffered by the general public – another example of so-called ‘public servants’ dishing it out to the people forced to pay their wages, apparently for our own good but in reality because the green scam has given them even more power to make people’s lives a misery whilst remaining totally insulated to the economic damage their virtue signaling decision making will cause
Holding the Isle of Wight to ransome.
Why might the Coronavirus make it necessary to start charging for vans??? Unless, of course, it’s really about raising revenue.
sounds to me like coaches and lorries will choose to use Red Funnel in preference to the Portsmouth levy…
I never understood why Wightlink did not take over the p&o ferry cross channel slot just off the M27 then no traffic through Portsmouth with lots of parking space etc It was obvious that at some point Portsmouth would bring in a congestion charge
Good we don’t want too many here. Let them go to Cornwall.
We need deliveries from lorries and all our small businesses and tourist attractions and holiday places need the revenue now more than ever.
Newport needs a Clean Air Zone.
First concentrate on Newport becoming a Chav free zone…
One of the points being missed here is that private cars are not being charged – YET. But they will be, and then see how it feels when you want to go to the mainland – rip off ferry fares, and rip off charges on top. And Southampton is already consulting on this issue, so not long before more of the same there. NIce.