Council refuses to reveal number of CAZ fines

confusion".

Responding to the FoI request, a council officer said: "Accelerating publication would unnecessarily divert scarce council resources in dealing with premature scrutiny of the success or otherwise of the CAZ scheme, and would represent an inefficient use of public money.

“Council officers would have to take time away from their normal duties to locate and collate the information.

“To accurately assess the performance of the Clean Air Zone against the stated objective for introducing the zone requires accurate air quality data to be available. The full data set required to accurately assess this performance will not be available until the zone has been in place for a minimum of 12 months.

"Disclosure of partial or incomplete information would be likely to mislead and result in confusion, inaccuracy or misunderstanding.”

Sheffield and Newcastle city councils published figures for drivers who breached their schemes within the two months of starting, and Birmingham published a detailed report within nine months.

Pressed for an explanation during an appearance on BBC Radio Bristol, Mayor Marvin Rees said revealing the numbers too early could lead to “erroneous conclusions” about the scheme.

He told presenter John Darvall: "The concern is that if we jump off too soon and we have too short a period with which to study what is actually happening with the Clean Air Zone, then we could come up with a picture that is a little bit misleading.

“It’s important that we get a sufficient quantity of data on the fines, on the transport journeys, and on the people who have taken the support packages, before we jump to any premature conclusions.

"What we worry about is incomplete data that leads us to any erroneous conclusions.”

By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporting Service

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