Bath Clean Air zone

[Wabs]

Morning all, thought I’d share this little nugget with you,,,the better half and me thought we’d pop to Bath for a few days, so found a decent looking site,as was just about to book it when the Eagle eye spotted the Clean Air zone,,,,this needed looking at,,,,so the cost of driving the MH into the zone is,,,,£ 100,,, so we thought,, sod that, checked on Googlie earth and I can’t find a way of getting to the site without driving through the zone, unless I come in the opposite way via New York,,,,so Bath has said no to my spending cash in the area,,,back to the drawing board,,

 

[Riverbankannie]

You can apply for a discount, online, for motorhomes and then the charge is £9. However a bit of a faff.

 

[Viennese]

You were lucky - we never saw the notices so it cost us £138 in fines. I wrote to Bath City Council to ask how to get to the Marina camp site from the M4 without going through the CAZ and Kieran wrote back as follows:

'Thank you for your e-mail. If you are coming from the east along the M4 I would suggest turning left onto the A46, right onto A420 and then turning left onto Freezinghill Lane. Follow this road down into Lansdown until you can turn right onto Lansdown Lane which will take you into Upper Weston on the map. You should then be able to go down Lansdown, through Weston and Combe Park and turn on to Newbridge Road to get to the campsite without entering the Clean Air Zone boundaries.
I have attached a quick screenshot to try and indicate the turn onto Lansdown Lane I reference as well as a circle to demonstrate where the Mariana campsite is located. I apologise in advice for my poor paint skills, but I hope this helps to show what I am describing to some extent. If you require further details please let me know.'

If you want the screen shot PM me with your email address and I will send it to you. It's not that helpful actually!

Good luck - it might be easier just to pay the £9 per day!

Catherine

 

[Wabs]

I’ve given up on the idea now,,decided on Dorset,,,,but thanks for your help.

 

[SandraL]

Re those directions, I think lansdown lane has a 2 metre width restriction.
Dont think its ever enforced but its there, bad lorry accident a few years back when their brakes failed.

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[deleted79651]

Report issued about 10 days ago says that gas heating boilers emit more pollutants than vehicles, so what is the motive behind clean air zones? Will the proceeds of the financial penalties be invested in subsidising the installation of domestic heat pumps and other 'clean' technologies?

Steve

 

[lunarman]

I think the only viable way to get to the marina site is to approach it on a A4 from the Bristol side of Bath. A long way round but avoids the CAZ.

 

[theapples]

Hi. Only one problem with that route there is a 2mt width limit. See photo. We live locally and wondered how Motorhome's would manage!! The only way in to the Newbridge/marina campsite missing the zone is on the A4 from the west/Bristol direction.

 

[Viennese]

Re those directions, I think lansdown lane has a 2 metre width restriction.
Dont think its ever enforced but its there, bad lorry accident a few years back when their brakes failed.

Thanks - I will enquire.

 

[Riverbankannie]

You were lucky - we never saw the notices so it cost us £138 in fines. I wrote to Bath City Council to ask how to get to the Marina camp site from the M4 without going through the CAZ and Kieran wrote back as follows:

'Thank you for your e-mail. If you are coming from the east along the M4 I would suggest turning left onto the A46, right onto A420 and then turning left onto Freezinghill Lane. Follow this road down into Lansdown until you can turn right onto Lansdown Lane which will take you into Upper Weston on the map. You should then be able to go down Lansdown, through Weston and Combe Park and turn on to Newbridge Road to get to the campsite without entering the Clean Air Zone boundaries.
I have attached a quick screenshot to try and indicate the turn onto Lansdown Lane I reference as well as a circle to demonstrate where the Mariana campsite is located. I apologise in advice for my poor paint skills, but I hope this helps to show what I am describing to some extent. If you require further details please let me know.'

If you want the screen shot PM me with your email address and I will send it to you. It's not that helpful actually!

Good luck - it might be easier just to pay the £9 per day!

Catherine

Yes Lansdown Lane 2m restriction. Steep downhill, leading to Weston High Street which looks like this. Of course it is passable, the dustbin lorries do it by holding up all traffic! but really seems pointless directing traffic through these narrow roads. Just moves the emissions to other folk and also because so slow through there, in total there are more emissions.

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[deleted79651]

Just seen this article in the Guardian. The new 'Eco' standard compliant Woodstoves are allowed to emit 750 times more pollution than an HGV ...

Woodstove Pollution Ecodesign

Steve

 

[GAVLAD]

Report issued about 10 days ago says that gas heating boilers emit more pollutants than vehicles, so what is the motive behind clean air zones? Will the proceeds of the financial penalties be invested in subsidising the installation of domestic heat pumps and other 'clean' technologies?

Steve

No. It’s just a money making scheme in my opinion where they’re seen to be doing something and funds raised go into the big black hole of council debt.
The government gave Bradford council millions of pounds to introduce a clean air zone as the government seems to be under pressure to be seen to be doing something about air quality. Which is a problem. But it’s easy to target mr diesel as the issue.
Routes from the motorways into Bradford are more congested during more hours of a day than the areas they’ve selected to have their clean air zone. Also, these areas are more industrial polluting than the selected clean air zones.
So why hasn’t that been tackled?
Also, I digress a little but if we are all worried about air quality, why do we permit bonfires?
Some bonfires/fires in the open are an excuse to get rid of items that carry red tape to legally dispose of at a household tip.
So why not ban bonfires?
Also, I’ve yet to hear of any local authority releasing air quality figures between the dates of 02.Nov through to 08.Nov between the hours of 4pm and 11pm when so many in the UK celebrates Guy Fawkes?
I wonder how many of these sit down on the motorway protesters will form a human chain around their village/town bonfire next month begging not to light it?
All this is going to do is force the targeted motorist to take alternative routes. Thus, spreading the pollution out more and creating side streets into rat runs.

 

[Kirsten]

Just seen this article in the Guardian. The new 'Eco' standard compliant Woodstoves are allowed to emit 750 times more pollution than an HGV ...

Woodstove Pollution Ecodesign

Steve

This is dreadful- A dear friend has paid through nose to have electric boiler and eco woodburner installed in her small listed cottage as she decided to spend her retirement lump sum £ on being as green and saving the planet as far as she could . She can't have an electric car as there is no parking anywhere near the house, so went for very expensive boiler and woodburner . She will be devastated if and when she reads this.
The electric boiler [hot water and heating ]was so expensive [£800 extra bill last quarter !!] she cant afford to have heating on for the same time as before with the gas boiler ..... could weep ! Cant do right for doing wrong - she took a lot of advice from various websites before doing this as well .

 

[Wabs]

I totally agree with all the comments,and as said I won’t be bothered about going to Bath, despite how lovely it looks,,the whole reason for MH ink is to relax,, not stress myself out just trying to get to a place to relax,,,if you know what I mean,, thanks for all your comments,,maybe the Local council should listen to you lot rather than jumping their self important Money making gun.

 

[Itsmcb]

I'm thinking of getting some dodgy Ukrainian number plates to go with my new UK sticker. A bit of velcro and bobs your uncle. Good luck to Bath council chasing that up for payment

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[Wabs]

Now that is a great idea

 

[Brains]

Just seen this article in the Guardian. The new 'Eco' standard compliant Woodstoves are allowed to emit 750 times more pollution than an HGV ...

Woodstove Pollution Ecodesign

Steve

Kirsten
I was not impressed with the article.

The major major difference between a diesel powered HGV and a wood burning stove is one is running on fossil fuel carried halfway across the planet and the other runs on a locally sourced, carbon neutral, renewable fuel.

If they added to the HGV the additional particulates produced by the ship bringing in the crude oil, the refinery making the diesel and the HGV that moved the diesel to the fuel station before it was pumped into the HGV that used it.
Plus of course you have to add the pollution that was caused by making the steel that went into the oil rig that found the crude oil, the pipelines that moved it, the tanker ship that carried it, the refinery that made it and the tarmacked roads it was carried on to the steel fuel station to go into the steel HGV.

In addition one must remember that until fairly recently, within the lifetime of many of us on this forum, houses in northern Europe were all heated by open fires which gave off far more pollution that a modern wood burning stove using dried wood.

I will be fitting wood burning stoves to any future house I buy, and will use the one I have at every opportunity as I believe it pollutes a lot less than a gas boiler when all the other pollutants of getting that gas to my boiler are taken into consideration.
In addition wood is carbon neutral and not a fossil fuel.

 

[deleted79651]

Kirsten
I was not impressed with the article.

The major major difference between a diesel powered HGV and a wood burning stove is one is running on fossil fuel carried halfway across the planet and the other runs on a locally sourced, carbon neutral, renewable fuel.

If they added to the HGV the additional particulates produced by the ship bringing in the crude oil, the refinery making the diesel and the HGV that moved the diesel to the fuel station before it was pumped into the HGV that used it.
Plus of course you have to add the pollution that was caused by making the steel that went into the oil rig that found the crude oil, the pipelines that moved it, the tanker ship that carried it, the refinery that made it and the tarmacked roads it was carried on to the steel fuel station to go into the steel HGV.

In addition one must remember that until fairly recently, within the lifetime of many of us on this forum, houses in northern Europe were all heated by open fires which gave off far more pollution that a modern wood burning stove using dried wood.

I will be fitting wood burning stoves to any future house I buy, and will use the one I have at every opportunity as I believe it pollutes a lot less than a gas boiler when all the other pollutants of getting that gas to my boiler are taken into consideration.
In addition wood is carbon neutral and not a fossil fuel.

Your choice, but PM2.5 blamed for 400,000 deaths and advice is not to use the woodstoves around young children and the elderly ...

Steve

 

[Brains]

Your choice, but PM2.5 blamed for 400,000 deaths and advice is not to use the woodstoves around young children and the elderly ...

Steve

40,000 across Europe (not 400,000)
I still think that is someone playing with statistics.

If you extrapolate the 40,000 claimed, by the number of stoves today (an average of way less than one per house), and then compare it to the number of open fires of say 50 years ago, (an average of more than 3 per house), millions would have died every year.
I'll grant you quite a few did in the smog's, but it was not millions every year.

Whilst I'm not saying they don't have a point, I think they are exaggerating a small issue many fold.

(One wonders if there is a hidden agenda here, no government likes its populace to have free energy, you cant tax it, you cant sell it)

 

[Bucket]

As Riverbankannie say's you have to take great care to avoid paying the tax. We live here and got caught the first time because the council downgraded our MoHo after I'd checked ().
Now if coming from the East or North we have to go via Bristol (Longwell Green). We live just south of the river about a mile from the centre.
However, you do get to come quite a long way into the city before getting hit so accessing the campsite on the Bristol side is fine. Regular buses run in and out and the cycling is good too.
And yes, Lansdown Lane is a no go area if over 2 m wide, stupidly it's a width restriction rather than weight? I see plenty ignoring it and have recently done so myself at 2 AM but wouldn't risk being caught in daylight. The cameras are to catch speeders but the local plod love their mobile traps......
Happily for us we are in advanced process to move out, somewhere close to the motorway network so we won't have to deal with this issue for much longer.

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[Riverbankannie]

Now if coming from the East or North we have to go via Bristol (Longwell Green).

Thereby adding to the woes of the A4174 ring road, another road to be avoided if at all possible (assuming don’t go through the middle of Bristol).

 

[deleted79651]

40,000 across Europe (not 400,000)
I still think that is someone playing with statistics.

If you extrapolate the 40,000 claimed, by the number of stoves today (an average of way less than one per house), and then compare it to the number of open fires of say 50 years ago, (an average of more than 3 per house), millions would have died every year.
I'll grant you quite a few did in the smog's, but it was not millions every year.

Whilst I'm not saying they don't have a point, I think they are exaggerating a small issue many fold.

(One wonders if there is a hidden agenda here, no government likes its populace to have free energy, you cant tax it, you cant sell it)

UK Government has said it does not propose to make any changes to the Environment Bill currently before Parliament. But you obviously know better than all the Scientists, NGO Investigators, University Academics et al who point out that their findings are based upon dry wood burning in ideal conditions. It would seem you who has the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

Steve

 

[Itsmcb]

If you have a euro 6 camper with a woodburning stove in the back will it still be exempt from the LEZ charge?

 

[deleted79651]

If you have a euro 6 camper with a woodburning stove in the back will it still be exempt from the LEZ charge?

Only if the driver is registered as Sooty ... And if his mate Sweep has cleaned the flue ...

Steve

 

[Itsmcb]

If you had this one, the passenger could stoke it as you crawled along in the traffic queues.

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[glenn2926]

Kirsten
I was not impressed with the article.

The major major difference between a diesel powered HGV and a wood burning stove is one is running on fossil fuel carried halfway across the planet and the other runs on a locally sourced, carbon neutral, renewable fuel.

If they added to the HGV the additional particulates produced by the ship bringing in the crude oil, the refinery making the diesel and the HGV that moved the diesel to the fuel station before it was pumped into the HGV that used it.
Plus of course you have to add the pollution that was caused by making the steel that went into the oil rig that found the crude oil, the pipelines that moved it, the tanker ship that carried it, the refinery that made it and the tarmacked roads it was carried on to the steel fuel station to go into the steel HGV.

In addition one must remember that until fairly recently, within the lifetime of many of us on this forum, houses in northern Europe were all heated by open fires which gave off far more pollution that a modern wood burning stove using dried wood.

I will be fitting wood burning stoves to any future house I buy, and will use the one I have at every opportunity as I believe it pollutes a lot less than a gas boiler when all the other pollutants of getting that gas to my boiler are taken into consideration.
In addition wood is carbon neutral and not a fossil fuel.

We don’t have a stove just an open grate. I am recycling old dead trees into heat. Saving them going to landfill. Man has burned wood for heat and to cook for thousands of years. To me it is better than burning oil or gas. Surely the wood when it was a tree, took in carbon dioxide and gave oxygen. That’s pretty carbon neutral in my book.

 

[Brains]

UK Government has said it does not propose to make any changes to the Environment Bill currently before Parliament. But you obviously know better than all the Scientists, NGO Investigators, University Academics et al who point out that their findings are based upon dry wood burning in ideal conditions. It would seem you who has the agenda, hidden or otherwise.

Steve

Yup,

Which is the reason wood burning stoves are still legal.

 

[Brains]

We don’t have a stove just an open grate. I am recycling old dead trees into heat. Saving them going to landfill. Man has burned wood for heat and to cook for thousands of years. To me it is better than burning oil or gas. Surely the wood when it was a tree, took in carbon dioxide and gave oxygen. That’s pretty carbon neutral in my book.

That is exactly my point.

 

[Wabs]

Personally, and I’m going to get torn to shreds for this,,but I don’t really care,,if the older people of this country need to keep warm and healthy they should use whatever means are needed, I think they have earned that rite,, it’s the BIG companies and countries that need the talking to,,if my parents were alive I’d be happy to burn anything to keep them here,,just my view

 

[bobnick]

Bath now ON my list of places NOT to go again.

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