What has changed, what the zones have achieved, and what drivers need to know, from councils, government and the local press across the UK.
A practical guide to Bath's Class C zone: non-compliant vans, taxis and minibuses pay £9 a day and buses, coaches and HGVs £100, while private cars and motorbikes are not charged. An unpaid charge brings a £120 penalty, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.
Bath and North East Somerset Council confirmed that non-compliant Avon Fire and Rescue vehicles would not be charged £9 a day when the four-year emergency vehicle exemption ended on 14 March 2025. More than half of the fire service fleet was still not compliant.
The exemption for police cars, ambulances and fire engines, in place since the zone opened in 2021, was due to end on 14 March 2025. A fire authority report said only 40% of its station-based appliances were compliant and full compliance would take another six years.
The council warned drivers about unofficial websites that charge more than the standard fee or fail to pay the charge at all. Bath's daily charge is either £9 or £100, and only the GOV.UK Clean Air Zones service can take payment.
The council's annual report found average nitrogen dioxide levels inside the zone in 2023 were 32% lower than in 2019. None of the 65 monitoring sites in the zone recorded an annual average above the legal limit.
The council's own non-compliant vehicles, mostly from its waste service, have run up 3,262 daily charges and fines worth £472,253 since 2021. It admitted one in eight of its fleet still did not meet the zone's emission standards.
Average nitrogen dioxide in the zone in 2024 was 29% lower than in 2019, and non-compliant vehicles fell from 15.2% of entries in June 2021 to 3.8% in August 2025. Five locations, including Moor Street and the A38 at St Chads, remain above the legal limit.
A Tamworth man paid £3,000 after enforcement agents clamped two vehicles over Clean Air Zone fines run up by his late father. The council defended its handling of the scheme and said the routes for challenge were clearly set out.
The council widened its scrappage scheme to residents inside the zone who receive certain benefits. Applicants can choose a £2,000 scrappage grant or packages of up to £4,000 that combine scrappage money with public transport credit.
Reform UK council leader Stephen Place said his group still intends to end the daily charges for polluting commercial vehicles despite the legal obstacles. The council's 2025 air quality report said locations breaching legal limits had fallen from 35 to two.
A petition signed by about 340 people asks for Bradford to move to a non-charging zone like York's, which only covers local buses. The council's pledge to scrap the charges is still being worked out and faces possible legal hurdles.
Clean Air Bradford warned that removing charges could undo progress, citing Born in Bradford research linking the zone to about 732 fewer GP visits a month for respiratory and heart conditions.
The new Reform UK-led council confirmed a review of the zone, aiming to keep it but drop the charges. Government rules say a zone can only be lifted two years after a city has shown it meets legal air quality limits.
The zone raised more than £10m in charges and fines by the end of 2023, money that can only be spent on air quality schemes. Part of it was earmarked for Bradford's first e-bike hire scheme, planned for the 2025 City of Culture year.
Nitrogen dioxide inside the zone rose by an average of 2.4% in 2025 compared with 2024, which the council put down to calm weather. Levels are still 16% lower than before charging began in 2022.
The council has written off £22m of unpaid Clean Air Zone fines over 18 months as enforcement warrants expired uncollected. The 45,000 warrants issued relate to only 11,000 debtors, many of them repeat offenders.
A plan to consult on raising the daily charge for non-compliant cars and vans from £9 to as much as £14 was voted down five votes to four. Some sites in the zone remain above the legal nitrogen dioxide limit.
A council report said pollution was still above legal limits and suggested higher charges to improve compliance. Nitrogen dioxide in the zone fell 12.6% in its first year and a further 5.1% in its second.
More than £200,000 of Clean Air Zone income will pay for School Streets closures at five schools at drop-off and pick-up times. The zone raised £7.2m in its first year, and the money can only be spent on running costs and air quality projects.
Drivers paid £1.4m in charges and £3.7m in fines in the zone's first two years, a total of £5.1m. Older diesel vans and taxis pay £10 a day and older buses, coaches and lorries £50.
A decorating supplies shop on West Bar said it had lost £50,000 in takings since the zone began, because many of its trade customers drive older vans liable for the £10 daily charge. It is moving to Darnall.
After complaints from coach firms, the council cut the time taken to approve school trip exemptions from five days to three. Without an exemption, non-compliant coaches pay £50 a day.
The zone had raised £2.3m in charges and fines since it began in February 2023. Part of the money is being used to extend the School Streets scheme, which closes roads outside schools at the start and end of the day.
Grant applications closed on 30 January 2026, three years after the zone opened. The scheme paid more than £5.5m to over 1,100 businesses, tradespeople and taxi drivers, and remaining funds will go towards upgrading older buses.
Average nitrogen dioxide across Newcastle fell 9% between 2023 and 2024. Percy Street and Stephenson Road in Heaton still exceed legal limits, so the zone stays in place.
Only 1,141 grants worth £4.7m had been paid from a £15m fund to help replace polluting vehicles. The zone, which charges non-compliant vehicles £12.50 to £50 a day, had generated almost £7m in charges and penalties in two years.
Average nitrogen dioxide fell at all but one of Newcastle's 70 monitoring stations in the zone's first year. The council said other factors may have contributed, and five roadside sites remained above the 40µg/m³ legal limit.
The zone brought in £3.4m in 2023/24, its first year, but £2.6m in fines was still unpaid. Most of the outstanding fines relate to light goods vehicles.
The council's cabinet welcomed continued improvement but heard the zone could remain until 2027. Portsmouth must pass two further government assessments, the next modelled at the end of 2026, before the zone can be removed.
A government assessment for 2025 found no legal nitrogen dioxide breaches at any of the 12 monitored locations, though Alfred Road and Hope Street remain at risk. The zone charges non-compliant buses, coaches, taxis and private hire vehicles.
A 2024 study found few vehicles in the zone are still charged, but diesel vehicles remain the main source of pollution at problem sites. The council found that expanding the zone could worsen traffic elsewhere and expected legal levels by late 2025 or 2026.
Two years after launch, three of 230 monitoring sites (Hope Street, Market Way and Alfred Road) were still above legal pollution limits. The council said the government-mandated zone had not had the desired effect.
A study of more than 3,400 primary school children in London and Luton found that lung growth stunted by pollution improved after the ULEZ cut emissions. Independent researchers said other factors also need to be considered.
Defra figures showed London met the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide in 2024, the first time since the rules were introduced in 2010. The mayor credited the ULEZ, while Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool still exceeded the limit.
TfL said 94% of penalty notices go to drivers with more than four outstanding, and it recovered over £16.5m of debt in the first half of 2025. The daily charge is £12.50 and an unpaid charge brings a £180 penalty, halved if paid within 14 days.
City Hall's one-year report on the London-wide expansion estimated nitrogen dioxide was 27% lower across London than it would have been without the ULEZ. Conservatives on the London Assembly disputed the modelling.
Six months after the London-wide expansion, 96% of vehicles seen in London were compliant, up from 90.9% in June 2023. The £210m scrappage scheme had approved 53,351 applications.
Oxford City Council adopted a target of 20µg/m³ for nitrogen dioxide by 2030, half the legal limit. It named the expansion of the zero emission zone, traffic filters and a workplace parking levy as key measures.
Oxfordshire County Council set out plans for a much larger zero emission zone in 2027 and a temporary £5 daily congestion charge for cars at six points. Vans and HGVs would not pay the congestion charge.
The full rollout of the zone across most of the city centre was expected in the 2026/27 financial year. The city council rejected a motion asking for an analysis of pollution in the proposed expanded area.
The county and city councils expect the nine-street pilot, running since February 2022, to raise £1.8m by the time it ends in 2026. It raised nearly £703,000 between April 2022 and March 2023, and the income must go on local transport.
The proposed expansion was expected to cost about £5.8m. An independent councillor called it a congestion charge because drivers of polluting vehicles can still enter if they pay.
Google Maps warned drivers of a £10 daily charge in a Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone that never came into force. The charging plans were dropped in 2022 and Google was rolling out a fix.
Work began to remove 1,300 signs installed for the cancelled zone, at a cost of about £600,000 paid by the government. The cameras stay in use, and air quality is now being tackled through cleaner buses and taxis.
A report showed £104m was spent on the scheme before it was dropped in 2022. Andy Burnham said much of the money went on electric buses and vehicle upgrades rather than being wasted.
The government approved an £86m plan to cut pollution by investing in cleaner buses and taxis instead of charging drivers. Officials said it would bring nitrogen dioxide within legal limits by 2026.
Fines income fell to £513,873 in 2025/26 while running costs rose to £781,765, so the zone cost the council more than it took in for the first time. About 2,000 penalty notices were issued a month, and 82% of appeals succeeded.
Glasgow issued 29,838 penalty charge notices in its second year of enforcement, down from more than 38,000 in the first. Of 4,468 appeals, just over half were successful.
The council's 2024 figures show nitrogen dioxide in the LEZ area down 34% on 2022, with a 21% fall at monitoring sites outside the zone. Glasgow met all statutory air quality objectives for the first time in three decades.
More than 33,000 penalty notices were issued in the first ten months of enforcement, bringing in £1,010,585 by 13 April 2024. The council set aside £250,000 each for urban greening and community climate action.
Around 350 Glasgow taxis were still non-compliant weeks before their 1 June 2024 deadline, with 76 granted exemptions. Retrofit grants cover up to 70% of costs, up to £5,000 per vehicle for exhaust systems.
40,945 penalty notices were issued between June 2024 and March 2025, bringing in £1,050,780. The £793,187 surplus after costs will go to projects that support air quality and lower emissions.
Over 95% of vehicles entering the zone are compliant, and penalty notices fell by 56% between June 2024 and January 2025. Private cars received 77% of penalties and vans 21%.
6,030 penalty notices were issued in June 2024, the first month of enforcement. 5,756 were for a first contravention and 274 for a second.
Penalty charges apply from 00:01 on 1 June 2024, after a two-year grace period. Motorcycles, mopeds and Blue Badge holders are exempt, and a £5m Scotland-wide support fund is available in 2024-25.
A council report shows the zone generated £1.23m in penalty income after costs in its first year, with about £561,000 still unpaid. Vehicle compliance rose from 82% in 2023 to 89%.
162 penalty notices went to Shetland-registered vehicles in the first year of Aberdeen's zone, 16 of them at the £480 maximum for a fourth breach.
26,739 penalties worth more than £3m were issued between June 2024 and early 2025, but about £825,000 had been paid. 1,676 were level 5 fines for vehicles entering at least five times within 90 days.
A guide ahead of enforcement on 1 June 2024: fines start at £60, halved if paid within 14 days, and double with each repeat breach up to £480 for cars. Taxis had until 1 June 2025 to comply.
One driver of a 2014 Nissan Note was fined 122 times between June and November 2024. Over 9,100 fines worth more than £880,000 were issued in the first six months, and monthly fines fell from 2,297 to 1,082.
Close to 6,000 penalty notices worth £454,000 were issued between 30 May and 25 August 2024, but the council collected only £96,000. Running the zone was estimated to cost £230,000 in 2024/25.
2,966 penalty notices were issued in the first six weeks after enforcement began on 30 May 2024. The council had collected £39,030 by then.
Fines in Dundee's zone start on 30 May 2024. Petrol cars registered before 2006 and diesel cars registered before September 2015 may be non-compliant, and the penalty resets to £60 after 90 days without a further breach.
Cardiff Council's Cabinet prefers a Workplace Parking Levy to a congestion charge, with the money going to bus services. A consultation will also cover a congestion charge and a do-nothing option.
Cardiff's Cabinet agreed to explore a road user payment, with options including congestion zones, clean air zones and workplace parking charges. Road transport produces about 40% of the city's carbon emissions.
A Welsh Parliament briefing on Cardiff's earlier plan for a £2 daily charge on non-resident vehicles, and how charging schemes have worked in Durham, London, Stockholm and Milan. Any Cardiff scheme needs Welsh Government consent.
A Freedom of Information request found more than 9.6 million penalty notices issued in London, Portsmouth and Bradford since 2019. Birmingham's Clean Air Zone issued 269,793 fines between 2021 and 2026.
Research by Peugeot found ten councils collected £1,044,381,971 in fees and penalty charges from emission zones since April 2019. London's ULEZ accounted for £875m of the total.
The government's rules for charging clean air zones in England, covering vehicle classes, minimum Euro standards, exemptions and penalty charges. Charges are meant to cut pollution, not raise general revenue.
Sets out the enforcement dates for Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and the minimum standards: Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel cars and vans. Penalties start at £60 and double for each repeat entry, capped at £480 for cars.
CAZ Tracker notices when you drive into a chargeable zone and reminds you to pay before the deadline, with a link straight to the official payment page.