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More than three quarters of all appeals against fines issued to drivers who failed to pay to travel in Ulez-style zones have been upheld, latest data shows.
Data given to The Telegraph by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) shows that across all non-London clean-air zones, 76 per cent of the 14,795 appeals so far have been successful.
Clean-air zones, which currently require the most-polluting vehicles to pay charges, have been springing up across the UK in recent years as part of some councils plans to reduce emissions. They often require a daily payment, with fines for non-payment between £160 and £180.
The zones followed on from the introduction of Ulez London, the first clean-air zone, which was brought in in April 2019 by London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Mr Khan is set to controversially expand the zone outside of London’s north and south circulars on Tuesday, which has led to widespread opposition to the plan.
The data from the TPT, which is responsible for managing appeals for road traffic penalty charges outside of London, showed that Birmingham had seen the highest proportion of fines overturned.
Of the 15,595 appeals that have been launched in the last two years, a staggering 13,280 (85 per cent) had been allowed, with just 1,622 refused. A total of 219 were still waiting for a decision, with 474 closed by consent.
The high levels of successful appeals have been criticised by Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr Birmingham, who said they were only the tip of the iceberg.
He said: “You quote this figure as the highest figure across the piece but I think the figure is much higher still because there are a lot of people who aren’t really able to get on and appeal against the mechanism in the system.
“The real issue is there are so many people caught in this trap, and predominantly these are the people who are least able to pay.”
Issued 1.5m penalty notices
Birmingham City Council said that the number of appeals that had gone to the penalty tribunal represented around one per cent of all the 1.5 million penalty notices issued since it was launched.
It added that around 10 per cent of all fines issued were appealed with the council, with drivers able to appeal through the tribunal once rejected.
A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “Birmingham’s clean-air zone was introduced as a way of tackling the risk to public health caused by poor air quality.
“Since its introduction, the zone has helped to reduce the percentage of the most-polluting vehicles that enter the city every day from 15.2 per cent in June 2021 to 6 per cent in June 2023.”
The high total number of appeals and fines in Birmingham when compared to other clean-air zones, is because Birmingham, like London’s Ulez, is a category D zone, which means private vehicles, as well as commercial vehicles.
The other clean-air zones are predominantly category C, and target just commercial vehicles, like HGVs, taxis and buses.
High loss rates
Despite Birmingham being the place with the highest rate of successful appeals, a number of other councils also have high loss rates with the tribunal when it comes to appeals.
In Bristol, a total of 527 (46 per cent) of 1,126 appeals have been overturned since its scheme was launched.
The grounds for getting an appeal overturned include the recipient was driving a hire vehicle, the charge was paid at the time the fine was issued, or in some cases wrongly handed to a compliant vehicle.
Nick Fletcher, MP for the Don Valley, said that the high level of appeals being overturned could represent a small percentage of the amount of fines being wrongly sent out.
The MP who tabled a parliamentary debate on clean-air zones in June, said: “The other question should be that there are clearly people who are being wrongly handed these fines that are paying, shouldn’t have to pay.
“If you are getting a rate of 76 per cent of the ones that have been appealed being quashed, then there are too many being given out in error, isn’t there.”
The other councils to implement clean-air zones include Newcastle, Portsmouth, Oxford, Bath and Sheffield.
The situation in London
In London, the appeals process for Ulez and congestion charge is managed by London Tribunals. The Telegraph was unable to access specific data on the success of Ulez appeals.
However, London Tribunals’ yearly report suggested that one in three appeals against Ulez or congestion charge fines were successfully upheld.
A TfL spokesman said the data only gave a partial view as some cases go to appeal and more than 90 per cent of those passed to an adjudicator have ended in its favour since 2019.
It added that its own data showed that of 14,970 appeal cases received in 2020-21, 1,326 (9 per cent) were found in the customer’s favour.
Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, said the latest figures were yet more evidence that clean-air zones were about “churning out fines” to raise money.
She said: “I fear that Ulez expansion is more about revenue-raising than pollution.”