Clean Air Zones in England and LEZ in Scotland: what a car pays

Two systems with opposite logic

Outside London, Britain has two families of emission zones, and they work in opposite ways. England’s Clean Air Zones (CAZ) sell you a day: if your car fails the standard, you pay a daily charge and drive on. Scotland’s Low Emission Zones (LEZ) sell nothing: a car that fails the standard is simply not supposed to be there, and the only price is a penalty. London’s ULEZ is a third, separate scheme run by TfL, covered in our guide to the ULEZ and the Congestion Charge.

The good news for most visitors: in England, only two zones charge private cars at all.

The class letter is the key in England. The government guidance on Clean Air Zones defines four classes. Class A covers buses, coaches, taxis and private hire vehicles; class B adds heavy goods vehicles; class C adds vans and minibuses; only class D adds cars. So in Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and the Newcastle and Gateshead zone (Tyneside), a private car pays nothing, whatever its age. If you are driving a rented van or a minibus, though, class C zones can charge it, so check before you go.

Two cities often mentioned in older articles have dropped out. Leeds decided not to introduce a zone, and the government removed it from its list in 2020. Greater Manchester agreed a plan without charges, and the guidance stopped mentioning it on 18 February 2025.

Does your car meet the standard?

England and Scotland use the same thresholds for cars: Euro 4 for petrol, Euro 6 for diesel. Fully electric cars always comply. A hybrid is judged on its petrol or diesel engine, so an older diesel hybrid can fail. Motorcycles are left alone in Birmingham, in Bristol and in all four Scottish zones.

As a rough guide, Scottish authorities say compliant petrol cars were generally registered from 2006 and compliant diesels from September 2015. What counts, though, is the Euro standard your car was approved to, not its date.

Here is the catch for foreign drivers. Both official checkers work from British number plates only. The GOV.UK service for English zones states that it cannot check vehicles registered outside the UK, and the Scottish checker says the same. You have to establish the standard yourself, from the registration certificate, the owner’s manual, the manufacturer or your national vehicle authority.

Birmingham: £8 a day inside the Middleway

Birmingham’s zone covers the city centre inside the A4540 Middleway ring road. The Middleway itself is outside, so you can drive round the centre without entering. There are no barriers: cameras read every number plate, around the clock, every day of the year, and signs on the main roads warn you before the boundary.

A car that fails the standard pays £8 per day. You pay online through the GOV.UK service Drive in a clean air zone, or by phone on 0300 029 8888. The payment window is 13 days long: up to 6 days before the trip, on the day itself, or until 23:59 on the 6th day after it. A charging day runs from midnight to midnight, so an evening drive that continues after midnight costs 2 days.

Miss the window and the council issues a £120 penalty charge, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. If you neither pay nor challenge it, a charge certificate raises it by half, to £180.

Bristol: £9 a day and a penalty on top

Bristol has run a small class D zone since 28 November 2022, around the clock and all year. Private petrol and diesel cars that fail the standard pay £9 per day, through the same GOV.UK service and with the same window: 6 days before, the day itself, or 6 days after.

Bristol’s council adds several practical details:

• You can enter and leave as often as you like on a paid day.
• A non-compliant car parked inside the zone owes nothing on a day it does not move.
• Nobody tells you that you have driven in. Watch for the signs, a green cloud with the letter D, and check the official map.
• Money paid in advance is not refunded if you end up not travelling.

Oxford: a different scheme that charges even clean cars

Oxford does not have a Clean Air Zone but a Zero Emission Zone, run by Oxfordshire County Council. It is still a pilot, opened on 28 February 2022 and limited to a handful of central streets, among them Cornmarket Street, Queen Street, Bonn Square and New Inn Hall Street.

The logic differs from every other zone in this guide. Here, compliance with Euro 4 or Euro 6 does not make you free: it only lowers the price. The charge applies from 7:00 to 19:00, every day of the year:

You pay on the county council’s own website, not on GOV.UK, up to 6 days before, on the day or within the 6 days after. An unpaid charge leads to a £60 penalty, cut to £30 within 14 days and raised to £90 if it reaches the charge certificate stage. The council warns that it sends no reminder. A wider zone is being prepared, but its date and prices are still subject to consultation.

Scotland: no ticket to buy, only penalties

Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen each have a Low Emission Zone in their city centre. Glasgow began fining all vehicles on 1 June 2023, Dundee on 30 May 2024, and Edinburgh and Aberdeen on 1 June 2024. The zones are enforced by cameras 24 hours a day, every day, Christmas Day included.

The rules come from national regulations and are identical in the four cities:

• There is no way to pay to enter. A non-compliant car that drives in receives a penalty charge notice, sent to its registered keeper.
• The first penalty is £60, halved to £30 if paid within 14 days.
• It doubles each time the same vehicle is caught again in the same zone within 90 days: £120, then £240, then a ceiling of £480 for a car.
• After 90 days without a new breach, the scale starts again at £60.
• One penalty at most per zone and per day.

Where the zones start

• Glasgow: roughly one square mile, bounded by the M8 to the north and west, the River Clyde to the south and Saltmarket and High Street to the east. The M8 motorway is not in the zone.
• Edinburgh: the heart of the city, between Tollcross, Palmerston Place, Queen Street, Abbeyhill and the Meadows. The boundary streets themselves are outside the zone.
• Dundee: the area inside the A991 Inner Ring Road. Three car parks inside that ring are excluded: Bell Street, West Marketgait NCP and Wellgate.
• Aberdeen: check the council map or the Traffic Scotland journey planner, which shows all four zones.

Foreign cars and exemptions

Edinburgh’s council answers the question visitors ask most: a car registered outside the UK must meet the same standard, and there is no registration to do in advance, because no mechanism exists for it. If your car complies, you simply drive in.

The national exemptions are narrow. They cover Blue Badge holders, whether driving or travelling as a passenger, who should register the exemption beforehand on the Transport Scotland portal; emergency and military vehicles; historic vehicles at least 30 years old, no longer produced and kept in original condition; and showmen’s vehicles. Councils can grant temporary exemptions, but Dundee and Glasgow both state that private cars are not eligible.

Leave the car outside the zone

When your car fails the standard, the simplest answer is a park and ride site or a station car park outside the zone. The cards below come from our database; operators set prices and hours and can change them.

Bristol

The West of England authority states that its park and ride sites all lie outside the Bath and Bristol zones, and that parking for the day is free at most of them. Bus 9 links Portway and Brislington through the city centre, Temple Meads and Cabot Circus, every 10 to 12 minutes at weekday peaks and every 15 minutes during the day.

Portway Park & Ride

7.6 km from the centre

Directions

Brislington Park and Ride

5.1 km from the centre Surface

Directions

Birmingham

Transport for West Midlands counts more than 9,500 park and ride spaces. Parking is free at most railway stations; only Bromsgrove, Longbridge, Solihull and Sutton Coldfield charge. Four Oaks and Kings Norton stations lie well outside the Middleway. Note that parking there without using the train or tram can earn you a fine.

Four Oaks Station Car Park Free

12.2 km from the centre

Directions

Kings Norton Station Car Park Free

7.6 km from the centre Surface

Directions

Glasgow

The Subway car park at Shields Road stands south of the Clyde, so outside the zone, and has 839 spaces. It is the only Subway car park where you may leave the car overnight. A park and ride ticket at £8.15 covers the day’s parking and a return Subway journey into the centre.

Shields Road Subway Parking Paid

1.8 km from the centre Surface

Directions

Edinburgh

Edinburgh lists 7 park and ride sites around the city. On the west side, Ingliston is free and served by the tram, but parking is not allowed from 2:00 to 4:00 and cars left overnight are towed. Hermiston, also free, accepts stays of up to 3 nights. To the east, Newcraighall charges 50p per 24 hours and has trains to the city centre.

Ingliston Park and Ride Free

10.5 km from the centre Surface

Directions

Hermiston Park and Ride Free

8.8 km from the centre Surface

Directions

Newcraighall Park and Ride Paid

6.3 km from the centre Surface

Directions

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Before you set off: a short check list

1. Find the Euro standard of your car in its papers or with the manufacturer. Without British plates, no official checker will do it for you.
2. List the zones on your route. In England, only Birmingham, Bristol and Oxford concern a private car.
3. Birmingham or Bristol with a non-compliant car: pay on GOV.UK between 6 days before and 23:59 on the 6th day after, or call 0300 029 8888.
4. Oxford: pay on the county council’s site, even with a compliant car.
5. Scotland with a non-compliant car: do not enter. Park outside and take the tram, train, bus or Subway.

For parking rules and car parks in each city, see our pages on Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh.