Government orders 'congestion charge' on Coventry roadsThe Government has ordered Coventry City Council to start charging motorists to enter the city in a bid to meet clean air targets.
Cars, taxis, buses and lorries could all face a fee to drive into the Clean Air Zone (CAZ), a move previously described by councillors as "economically disastrous."
The demand comes after the city council's £83million plan to cut pollution was rejected by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Coventry City Council has been under severe pressure to reduce its nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels as the city is forecast to exceed legal limits in 2021.
The authority's Local Air Quality Action Plan was sent to the government in March to avoid controversial clean air zone charging drivers.
Proposals included encouraging the use of electric-powered taxis, retrofitting cleaner engines on 100 buses, introducing new walking and cycling routes, road closures and traffic restrictions.
But the council’s plans have failed to satisfy DEFRA.
Instead, they have directed the council to implement a Class D clean air zone “as soon as possible” – an outcome previously described as “economically disastrous” for Coventry by cabinet member for jobs and regeneration Councillor Jim O’Boyle.
The ‘Class D’ measure, similar Birmingham’s clean air zone, would lead to charges for buses, coaches, taxis, PHVs, HGVs LGVs and cars whose engines are not clean enough.
Coventry City Council will now have just weeks left to revise their plan, having been set a deadline of June 14 to respond.
It is not yet known where the clean air zone would be implemented.
However, at a previous council meeting in April, Cllr O’Boyle said: “Coventry is not very big.
"A congestion charge would have to start at virtually all of the entrance points into the city, so virtually every single area of our city could be affected, and every arterial road into the city could be a road you have to be charged to go down.
“The economic disbenefits of that could be pretty extreme.”