Air pollution is deadly! Clean Air Zone and congestion charge what is the difference??
- Jan 25, 2022
- 2 min read
According to the Birmingham city council customer service, ‘between 28,000 and 36,000 people die across the UK from the effects of poor air pollution, with approximately 900 of them living in Birmingham’.
Clean air zones are there as a strategy at tackling air pollution in the UK where the Clean Air zone will only charge the most high-polluting vehicles, promoting cleaner air across the UK. Air pollution has long term effects such as heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases as stated by nationalgeographic.org.
Making the clean air zone a positive initiative at combatting a national crisis. However, there are plenty people who have the clean air zone and congestion charge confused.
Joan Kiruri a law student who is also a licenced driver had the misconception that the Clean Air Zone charged drivers passing through the Clean air zones regardless of car condition. The Birmingham City Council C/S has clarified that where the Clean Air zone is only charging the most high-polluting vehicles, whereas the congestion charge is about charging every vehicle that passes within a designated area.
Sourced:Unsplash
Some drivers are not very happy with these additional chargers on the road. Speaking with a younger driver by the name of Samuel Mhamila, he feels ‘as drivers anyway we already have so much to pay for and it just seems like another money-making scheme and it’s unfair for people commuting to work from London’. Also according to
sustainabledevelopment.un.org the congestion charges do benefit the economy by contributing £50 million to London’s economy but there are also some other benefits such as reduced traffic 21% below pre-charge levels with a total of 70,000 less cars each day.
An improvement in air quality and reducing air pollution will better the health of the British public and such initiatives such as the clean air zone and the congestion charges are there to actively tackle the problem and before people get used to these new adjustments more information on the topics will help to provide clarity
Nationalgeographic.org
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