Drivers will be charged £10 to enter another British city from today as Clean Air Zone comes into force

DRIVERS will be charged £10 to enter yet another British city from today as a new Clean Air Zone comes into force.

Clean Air Zones (CAZs) mean that owners of vehicles that don’t meet certain emissions standards have to pay to access city centres each time they drive in.

AlamyDrivers will be charged £10 a day to enter Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone[/caption]

They have already been established in major cities like Birmingham and Bristol, as well as London’s similar and infamous ULEZ, but now a new city has joined their ranks.

Motorists in Sheffield, Yorkshire, will now have to cough up a tenner each time they drive within the city’s inner ring road.

Buses, coaches, taxis, HGVs and LGVs will all have to pay if they do not meet European Union emissions standards and will be picked up by number-plate recognition cameras.

Larger vehicles will be charged £50, while it will be £19 for taxis and LGVs.

Private vehicles will not be affected but businesses have repeatedly raised concerns with the local council that the extra cost could be crippling, especially amid a cost of living crisis.

Diesel vehicles will have to meet Euro 6 diesel rules, while Euro 4 petrol regulations are the standard for petrol cars.

Drivers don’t have to worry if their vehicles were registered after January 2006 for petrol and September 2015 for diesel, but any from before then could be subject to the charge.

The tariff must be paid within six days of the journey being made and can be made up to six days before.

Missing a payment could see motorists slapped with a fine, which can vary in size depending on the vehicle and the number of missed payments.

One man in Bristol said he was fined just for driving his wife to the hospital, while a Birmingham resident was slapped with a £540 penalty after being unable to pay the CAZ charge because he had destroyed his bank card after being scammed.

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