City says government is forcing it to take action to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels

The city of Bath may have a reputation for gentility but plans to charge many motorists £9 a day to drive into its Georgian streets are provoking anger and resentment.

High levels of pollution, largely caused by topography – the city lies in a giant bowl – are forcing the council to act, but critics say the move will hit people struggling financially and force traffic out into areas just outside the zone.

Traffic congestion has long been a problem in Bath, which has Unesco world heritage status. Suggested solutions have ranged from boring a road tunnel under the city centre to building a park-and-ride site on water meadows.

There are a number of spots in Bath where nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels exceed the legal limit of 40 µg/m3. According to Bath and North East Somerset council (Banes), a third of Bath’s NO2 is produced by diesel and petrol cars. It says 12,000 people in Banes suffer from asthma and risk attacks because of the high levels of NO2.

Banes is proposing to set up a clean air zone (CAZ) by the end of 2020 that would mean drivers of “higher-emission vehicles” – including many reasonably new diesel cars and older petrol ones – would have to pay £9 a day to enter the designated area.

It would not affect only residents. The geography of Bath and the lack of alternative routes around the city mean that many commuters and travellers who need to pass through to get elsewhere would also be caught by the charge.

Thousands of people have taken part in a consultation, which ends on Monday (26 November), with many fiercely opposed.

At a consultation event at a social club (which was watched over by two members of security staff), Cllr Bob Goodman, cabinet member for development and neighbourhoods, said the authority had been mandated to bring the levels down and believed charging was the best solution.

“It may sound draconian but we have to take action,” he said. “The government has mandated us to reduce the NO2 levels. We have to do that.”

Goodman said private and commercial drivers would be helped to change their vehicles for compliant, lower-emission ones. There would also be exemptions or concessions including for disabled people and registered carers.

“There are many people who have non-compliant vehicles who are adamantly against it but we will help them,” he said. “I’m not going to let our kids suffer from pollution and asthma.”

Few at the event seemed impressed. Andy Southern, who lives in a village west of the city and has to cross Bath every day to get to work, said: “I have a diesel car that will fall foul of this. It’s going to cost me £2,200 a year. I agree we need to improve air quality but this scheme will hit families like mine. We’d like to change the car [but] we can’t afford to at the moment.”

Stephen Moss, a taxi driver who reckons he has driven 2m miles around Bath during his 35-year career, said the proposal was making him feel ill with anxiety. “These are stealth controlling tariffs and are out of reach of the average man or woman.”

Melanie Hilton, who lives in Keynsham, within Banes but eight miles from the city centre, said it could stop her visiting. “I can’t afford £9 when I want to come in and pick my child up from the station or get my hair cut. We need more intelligent thought about how to design roads to get people in and out more effectively.”

Emma Adams, a businesswoman and chair of the parish council in Batheaston, a village to the east of the city centre, said she feared the scheme would prompt drivers of non-compliant – and thus most polluting – vehicles into rural rat runs. “We’re already congested and we’re concerned that will increase.”

A decision is due to be reached by the council in December.

• This article’s headline was amended on 26 November 2018 to clarify that the planned charge would be introduced to tackle pollution, not traffic congestion.