Sheffield's Clean Air Zone map shows how city council will earn £700,000-a-month charging drivers

The boundary follows the inner ring road - and even driving along it is chargeable. Four roundabouts are excluded, presumably to give motorists the chance to turn around and leave if they don’t want to pay. But Park Square is fully inside the zone, which extends up Sheffield Parkway to snare vehicles on the approach to the city. Meanwhile, little ‘fingers’ of blue can be seen extending out to include parts of the Wicker, Mowbray Street, Meadow Street, Duke Street, Broad Street and London Road.

Non-compliant vans, taxis, coaches, buses and lorries will be charged between £10 and £50-a-day. Private cars, motorbikes and mopeds are exempt.

Council documents show the CAZ is set to earn £705,240-a-month from drivers, while staffing costs are £135,604-a-month. The zone was announced in 2018. It was delayed in 2020 due to Covid-19 and a new date of 2022 was set but that was extended to February 2023. Some £3m is to be spent on cameras and signs, some of which have gone up in the city warning the scheme goes live ‘in spring’.

But with just weeks to go, businesses say they are still waiting for financial support to help them upgrade or change vehicles. Last week, councillors Julie Grocutt and Mazher Iqbal said: “Final details of the schemes are being worked through, including the eligibility criteria and announcements on the launch of the financial assistance measures will be made soon.”

Ian Proctor, of Knab Farm Shop in Millhouses, said: “So it goes live in February but no support package announced just yet. It’s not giving business owners long to plan, especially when we have Christmas to concentrate on!

“And it doesn’t give businesses long to apply and get a new van (in my case), which, because of the cost-of-living crisis there is no way we can afford. My only viable option is to get from A-to-B by avoiding the zone, so doing extra miles to get to where I need to be or go out of business!”

Last week, hundreds of taxi drivers signed a petition calling to cancel the project saying they could not afford the £75,000 to upgrade vehicles. Sheffield City Council was contacted for comment.

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