Siemens mobility awarded Portsmouth CAZ contract

Portsmouth City Council has awarded Siemens Mobility a contract to design a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) for the south-west side of the city. 

The implementation of the CAZ is planned to ensure that the city achieves reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution in the shortest possible time. 

The scheme will charge drivers of the most polluting vehicles to enter the zone, with an aim to encourage them to upgrade to cleaner low or no emission vehicles. 

Siemens is working closely with the council, the central government’s Joint Air Quality Unite and other programme partners to design a reliable CAZ.

The zone will use Siemen’s automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera monitoring technology, which will be installed at 42 locations across the zone. 

The cameras will identify and register every vehicle that enters the zone, with the information captured then being interfaced with the UK government’s national Clean Air Zone database for vehicle checking and payment.

Wilke Reints, managing director of intelligent traffic systems for Siemens Mobility in the UK, said: ‘As traffic levels nationally return to pre-lockdown levels, air quality remains a major concern for local authorities, and is the most significant environmental risk to people’s health.

‘With our UK manufacturing base in Poole, we have the capability and operational flexibility to meet the demand for clean air solutions which are playing a vital role in not only improving air quality but also changing drivers’ behaviour.’

Cllr Dave Ashmore, Portsmouth City Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: ‘It is important we do all we can do to improve air quality in Portsmouth, as polluted air impacts everyone’s health.

‘Improving cleaner travel options is essential to the future of our city, so I’m pleased that Siemens Mobility will bring their vast experience of Clean Air Zone solutions and ANPR technology to the design of the Portsmouth CAZ.

‘We must all take action to improve air quality and the CAZ is a significant part of the work we’re doing to tackle air pollution in the city. This is supported by a number of other activities, including providing more Electric Vehicle (EV) charge points and retrofitting over 100 local buses so they meet cleaner Euro 6 standards.’

Photo Credit – Pixabay