The Clean Air Zone (CAZ) was enforced by Bradford Council on September 26, 2022 and was designed to improve air quality in areas where the quality is worst and impacts people's health the most.
Paul Conway, from Farsley in Leeds, is the owner of a scaffolding company that has been based in Bradford for more than 15 years. Since the introduction of the CAZ, he now has to pay £50 for every day he travels to his yard as his vehicle does not meet emission requirements.
He has tried applying for an exemption but was rejected for various reasons.
Mr Conway told Yorkshire Post photographer Tony Johnson how much the scheme has impacted his business and mental health.
Paul Conway, from Farsley in Leeds, is the owner of a scaffolding company that has been based in Bradford for more than 15 years. Since the introduction of the CAZ, he now has to pay £50 for every day he travels to his yard as his vehicle does not meet emission requirements.
He has tried applying for an exemption but was rejected for various reasons.
Mr Conway told Yorkshire Post photographer Tony Johnson how much the scheme has impacted his business and mental health.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 It's Paul Conway, I run Farsley Scaffolding based in Bradford.
00:04 The congestion zone, it's destroying my business.
00:09 For me to come here to my own yard, it's £50 a day just to leave the yard in the wagon.
00:16 Any jobs that I have out this way, if I can I'm having to go over the moors to avoid Bradford
00:22 altogether.
00:23 I'm having to avoid all the main roads that were built for wagons and take the country
00:27 roads which is a lot more dangerous but I can't afford, there's no margin for the extra
00:34 £50 or £100 per job I'd have to charge to my customers.
00:39 Before that the council promised me all sorts of help and grants and exemptions but then
00:45 since I put all my applications in for them, everyone's been denied for different reasons.
00:52 I'm a storage yard, my landlord pays the rates but I don't pay the rates.
00:57 I personally live in Leeds, it's not black and white how people run their companies,
01:05 I just don't think they're being fair.
01:08 Well, a lot of people might think it's just hitting my company and I've got an old wagon
01:13 but it is hitting all the residents of Bradford because if they need a re-roof then that's
01:19 it, it's going to cost them £50 for me to come out before I've even put any scaffolding
01:23 up and £50 to come out and take it down again.
01:26 If it's an extension or a new build you could be looking at having to attend sites five
01:32 or six times so you're looking at hundreds of pounds on top of already the scaffolding
01:39 licence fee that the council have put up to £100 a week.
01:43 It's getting harder and harder, I'm paying Bradford Council more money than I'm making.
01:48 I've had so many excuses about why they won't give me an exemption.
01:53 As I said, they said I'm just a storage yard so that doesn't count.
01:56 Well, that's all I needed, storage, I'm a scaffold business.
02:00 They said that my landlord pays rates but not me so even though we're in the same place
02:05 and the rates are being paid only my landlord could get an exemption but I can't as a business.
02:11 And then they say because I live in Leeds but Leeds and Bradford are two cities that
02:17 are touching on borders.
02:20 Companies from Leeds service Bradford all the time and vice versa, companies from Bradford
02:24 service Leeds all the time and Leeds businesses.
02:27 So I can understand if they wanted to charge me to go 30 miles away to another city but
02:32 it's right on my doorstep and I'm being excluded for something that's on my doorstep and I'm
02:37 just having to try my hardest to get round it and logistically work through it.