The £9 clean air charge: zone, vehicle, exemptions
Check whether an address is inside Bristol's Clean Air Zone, work out whether your vehicle is charged and what it would cost, and see which exemptions still exist — most of them ended in 2023.
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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/bristol-england-gb/clean-air-zone
Is this address inside the zone?
Type a postcode, or a street and house number. Nothing you type is stored, logged or counted.
Will my vehicle be charged?
M1
Not enough to say from this alone.
Whether this vehicle is charged turns on its emissions standard, and nothing entered here settles it. The official checker is the only way to find out for a particular vehicle. If you don't know the Euro standard, the honest answer from a year alone is “probably, but check” — and the official checker settles it in a few seconds.
These are the figures if the charge does apply. Nothing entered above settles that — the official checker does.
Driving in across midnight costs two daily charges — one for each day. A late night out and the drive home can be £18 rather than £9.
A year
£2,340.00
Charging days a week
5
Each charging day
£9.00
A week
£45.00
A month
£195.00 — The yearly figure divided by twelve, not a calendar month.
Bristol's Clean Air Zone has charged non-compliant vehicles since 28 November 2022, and the complaint residents actually voice about it isn't the charge — it's not knowing where the zone is, whether their own car is caught, or what happened to the exemptions.
So this page answers those three things in that order, and it is blunt about the part that catches people out: every one of the ten exemptions Bristol created when the zone opened has now expired. A blue badge no longer exempts anyone. The disabled tax class on your V5C still does. Those are different things, and the council's own pages still sit the dead scheme next to the live one.
Where the boundary is
The map is not the legal boundary
This lookup uses the boundary Bristol City Council publishes as open data — the same layer its own public zone map draws. The legal boundary is the set of plans deposited at City Hall under the 2022 Charging Order, so treat an answer here as a strong indication and the council's map as the authority.
Being inside the boundary is not the same as being charged. The charge applies on the roads the council is the traffic authority for, and a vehicle sent into the zone by an official diversion is not charged for that day.
Boundary: Bristol City Council open data · Open Government Licence v3.0 · Boundary data checked 25 July 2026.
What each kind of vehicle pays
The daily amounts in the council’s charging order, by the vehicle categories the order uses. A vehicle that meets the emissions standard pays nothing whatever its category.
Vehicle
Category
Each charging day
What that covers
Car
M1
£9.00
Any private car, including estates and people carriers.
Van or light goods vehicle under 3.5t
N1
£9.00
Transit-sized vans, car-derived vans, pickups under 3.5 tonnes.
Taxi or private hire vehicle
M1 or M2
£9.00
Hackney carriages and PHVs. Neither has ever had an exemption here, wherever they are licensed.
Minibus
M2
£9.00
Up to 5 tonnes and more than eight passenger seats. The council's own published table doesn't mention minibuses at all; the Charging Order puts them at the lower charge.
HGV over 3.5 tonnes
N2 or N3
£100.00
Bus or coach
M3
£100.00
A large coach is M3 and pays £100 — but a small coach built as an M2 pays £9, which the council's flat “Coaches £100” line doesn't say.
Motorcycle, moped or scooter
The emissions standards
Fuel
Standard it must meet
The council’s rule of thumb
Notes
Petrol
Euro 4
most petrol vehicles first registered after 1 September 2006
Diesel
Euro 6
most diesel vehicles first registered after 1 September 2015
Hybrid
Euro 6 diesel, or Euro 4 petrol
A hybrid is judged on its engine: the diesel engine must be Euro 6, the petrol engine at least Euro 4. Being a hybrid is not itself compliance, and the council states that a plug-in hybrid is not counted as an electric vehicle.
Gas (LPG or CNG)
Euro 6
Fully electric
Meets the standard whatever its Euro number
Fully electric vehicles are compliant and are never charged.
Hydrogen fuel cell
Meets the standard whatever its Euro number
Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are compliant and are never charged.
The registration dates are the council's own rules of thumb — its words are “most new registrations after” — not tests. Plenty of vehicles are cleaner or dirtier than their year suggests, especially between 2014 and 2016 as Euro 6 diesels arrived. Use the year to know what to expect, then check the registration.
Paying
Nobody tells you that you entered
Nothing tells you that you owe anything. There is no letter, text or email when you enter the zone — the first thing many people hear is a £120 penalty notice weeks later.
Paying
Up to 6 charging days before, and up to 6 days after
Penalty charge
£120.00
Reduced if paid within 14 days
£60.00
Payment period for a penalty notice
28 days
The penalty is £120, halved to £60 if you pay within 14 days, with 28 days to pay. The £9 or £100 daily charge is still owed on top of it — the penalty doesn't replace it.
A blue badge does not exempt you. The disabled tax class does.
Bristol's blue-badge exemption ended on 31 March 2023. What still exempts a vehicle is the disabled tax class or the disabled passenger vehicle tax class on its V5C — that is a national rule, it applies automatically, and it has nothing to do with holding a badge. If you have a blue badge but your vehicle is not in one of those tax classes, you owe the daily charge like everyone else.
Every entry below was checked against the council’s own pages on 25 July 2026. Exemptions expire, and pages are not always updated when they do — the date is here so you can judge how much weight to give this list.
For anything you have to apply for: you are not exempt until it is approved, and approvals last 12 months and need renewing. Applying is not the same as being covered.
National exemptions — no application needed
Applies automatically — no application
Who it covers
Ultra-low-emission vehicles, vehicles in the disabled tax class or disabled passenger vehicle tax class, military vehicles, historic vehicles, vehicles retrofitted under the CVRAS scheme, and certain agricultural vehicles.
How it works
These apply automatically from DVLA records — there is nothing to apply for. If the checker says you are chargeable and you believe one of these applies, it is a DVLA record problem: the central Clean Air Zone service is on . The council cannot fix it.
When a charge can be refunded
Four grounds for getting a charge back, each with its own deadline:
Ground
How long you have
You paid, but your vehicle was compliant and the checker had it wrong
Claim within 180 days — Six months to claim.
An official diversion sent you into the zone
Claim within 28 days
A hospital exemption was granted after you had already paid
Claim within 28 days — One day's charge is refunded.
The wrong vehicle type was recorded for a non-UK vehicle
Claim within 28 days
Help towards a compliant vehicle
There is a financial-support package for replacing or upgrading a non-compliant vehicle, funded as part of the zone.
Help towards a compliant vehicle
Amount
Notes
Car
£2,000.00
Taxi or private hire vehicle
£1,500.00
Hackney carriage
£4,000.00
Van or light goods vehicle
£4,500.00
HGV
£16,000.00
Coach
£16,000.00
Who the scheme is for
Individuals must live in Bristol, earn less than £35,000, be named on the V5C, and have owned the vehicle for at least 12 months.
Taxi loans and grants are only for drivers licensed by Bristol City Council — a driver licensed elsewhere gets neither the grant nor an exemption.
There is also free active-travel support — bike and e-bike trials, cycle training, bus and train taster tickets, car club credit — which does not depend on scrapping anything.
How the zone came about
Is it working?
Partly, and the council doesn't claim otherwise. Compliant journeys rose from 84.6% to 88.4% across the first year, and nitrogen dioxide has fallen — but five monitoring sites were still above the 40 µg/m³ legal limit in 2024, and levels rose at 43 of 191 sites between 2023 and 2024. Bristol has not reached compliance yet.
Where the money goes
The zone took £31.2m in its first year against £4.9m of costs. By law the surplus can't be spent freely: operating costs first, then a reserve for decommissioning the zone when it ends, then local transport. The Charging Order says in as many words that it is not intended to generate substantial net proceeds.
It isn't meant to be permanent
A clean air zone can be removed once the government's own assessment shows a city will keep meeting the limits — which is why the council is already holding a decommissioning reserve. With five sites still over the limit in 2024, that is not close, but the zone is a means to an end rather than a fixture.
This page sets out the rules the council and the national scheme publish, so you know what to expect before you drive. It is not a decision about your address or your vehicle: the council’s own zone map settles where the boundary runs, the official vehicle checker settles whether a vehicle is charged, and the council and the national clean-air-zone service decide every exemption.
The official zone mapWhere the boundary is decided if an address here looks borderline.
The 2022 Charging OrderThe statutory document behind every amount and every exemption date on this page.
(2 months ago)
L
Not charged
Bristol left motorcycles out of the zone altogether — they are never charged, whatever their age or emissions.
The amounts here come from the council's 2022 Charging Order, which sets them by EU vehicle class. The council's public table lists fewer categories than the Order does, so if your vehicle isn't on its page, it is still covered by one of these classes.
Charging started
28 November 2022
What counts as a charging day
The zone operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. A charging day runs from midnight to midnight, and you pay once for that day however many times you drive in and out.
What counts as a charging day
Driving in across midnight costs two daily charges — one for each day. A late night out and the drive home can be £18 rather than £9.
This page cannot look up a registration
We can't check your number plate here. The government's vehicle-compliance service has no public interface a tool like this can use, and DVLA has closed new applications for the one that would work — so anyone offering you a plate check on a page like this is guessing. Put your registration into the official checker instead: it is free, instant, and it is the answer that counts.
Visitors to an inpatient (a grant covers 7 days, up to two vehicles per patient, renewable), and patients attending an appointment at least three times in a month for at least three months. It covers the Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, St Michael's, Bristol Dental, Bristol Eye and the Central Health Clinic.
How it works
Apply through the hospital, not the council — at least three working days before the appointment, or up to three days after. For an emergency department it is on the day or up to four days after. The trust also uses discretion for cancer treatment, end-of-life care and people on the NHS travel-costs scheme.
How long it takes and lasts
This is the one substantial local exemption that survived, because it was written as permanent rather than transitional.
Vehicles in tax class 4 (special types), class 8 (special vehicles, including showman's HGVs) and classes 11.2 to 11.6 — mowing machines, electric vehicles, gritters, snowploughs and steam vehicles.
How it works
Apply per vehicle through the council's Clean Air Zone permit portal. It is free and decided within 15 working days.
How long it takes and lasts
Valid for 12 months and has to be renewed — and you are not exempt until the application is approved.
Emergency service vehicles
You have to apply, and be approved
Who it covers
Vehicles in tax class 12.
How it works
Applied for through the same council portal.
How long it takes and lasts
Permanent in principle, but still renewed every 12 months.
Blue badge holders — Ended 31 March 2023
Both the daily and longer-term blue-badge exemptions.
Residents of the zone — Ended 31 March 2023
Anyone living inside the zone boundary. Living here has not exempted anyone since March 2023.
Low-income workers in the zone — Ended 31 March 2023
People working more than 18 hours a week inside the zone, on up to £13.51 an hour, living outside it.
Vehicles on order or on approved finance — Ended 31 July 2023
Vehicles awaiting delivery under the Financial Assistance Scheme. Worth knowing because the council's exemptions page still invites applications to this one.
Commercial vehicles on finance agreements — Ended 31 March 2023
Vehicles under a contract signed on or before 30 November 2021.
Community transport — Ended 31 March 2023
Vehicles run under section 19 or 22 permits.
Recovery vehicles — Ended 31 March 2023
Tax class 10 recovery vehicles.
Home to school transport — Ended 31 March 2023
Council-arranged home-to-school transport.
Personal Travel Budget families — Ended 31 March 2023
Families using a Personal Travel Budget for school journeys.
If the official checker has your vehicle wrong, that is a national records issue rather than a Bristol one — the central Clean Air Zone service is on 0300 029 8888, and the council has no power to override it.
Amounts as published on 25 July 2026.
The council's page presents this as open and its expression-of-interest form works, but the page carries no closing date and no last-reviewed date — so this is what was published on 25 July 2026, not a promise that money is still there. Ask the council before counting on it.
Hospital patients — the general exemption — Ended 31 March 2023
The broad “attending a hospital appointment” exemption. The narrower frequent-patient and inpatient-visitor routes above replaced it and are still open.
Taxis and private hire vehicles — Never applied here
There has never been a taxi or PHV exemption in Bristol, and the Charging Order specifically excludes taxis, PHVs, buses and coaches from the resident, worker and hospital categories. HGVs have never had one either — only grant support.