Street: City could get congestion charge for older diesels.

Byline: ENDA MULLEN News reporter [email protected]

INTRODUCING a charge for bringing vehicles into Birmingham is something the city "is going to have to do", according to the region's mayor Andy Street, but could it come to Coventry too? In the short to midterm that is unlikely but the long-term picture may be different - particularly in relation to older diesel cars.

In his manifesto, Mr Street made a pledge not to introduce universal congestion charging across the region but Birmingham is a different story.

Birmingham city centre and stretches of the M6 near the UK's "second city" have been identified as pollution hotspots by the Government and something will be done as a result.

Speaking at the recent 2013 Panel Event, organised by the Telegraph's sister paper the Birmingham Post, Mr Street said a Birmingham congestion charge would see money raised spent on offering alternative methods of transport to car users.

At the seminar, which looked at how Birmingham and the West Midlands could look in 13 years' time, Mr Street said: "The Government has done a lovely job of chucking this over the fence by saying to lots of areas of the country, if you have a pollution problem, you have got to put a policy in place.

"They had this rather bizarre approach of naming the roads where the pollutants were above a certain level but, if you look at the information for Birmingham, it basically covers the city centre and the M6.

"I am determined we do this with the city council and across the combined authority area to come up with a plan for that.

"I do believe, and this is exactly what I wrote in my manifesto, we are going to have to do this.

"The money we raise from this polluting charge will go specifically to support measures which are all encouraging a modal shift in transport use.

"We have got to find the cash to make that happen and the simple argument is, do we actually use some form of charge? To be fair to Ken Livingston and Boris Johnson, that's what they did in London.

"There is still terrible congestion but they did use that to fund an improvement in public transport and that has to be the model we think about."

So, what of Coventry? A spokesman for Mr Street made it clear there are no plans for a congestion charge in the city but added that, given Coventry has ambitions to become a global pacesetter in the development of electric vehicles and connected and autonomous vehicles, it may be well placed to play a role in leading the way as regards cleaner city centres.

However, one area where a Coventry congestion charge has not been dismissed entirely is in relation to older diesel vehicles.

Speaking on BBC CWR he said: "We are going to have to act in the West Midlands and my view is actually that the public want that to happen, so there will be a willingness to support some form of charging to encourage older diesel vehicles to come off the streets."

CAPTION(S):

Regional mayor Andy Street wants to bring in a congestion charge in Birmingham