Birmingham City Council has paid more than £470,000 to itself in daily charges and fines because its own vehicles break the rules of its Clean Air Zone (CAZ) policy.
Even though there has been a year-long bin strike in the city, most of its vehicles facing daily charges were from the waste department.
The authority said it had been replacing non-compliant vehicles over the past 12 months and wanted "eco driving" across its fleet, but admitted one in eight vehicles still did not comply with the zone's emissions standards.
Since the CAZ scheme began in the city centre in 2021, non-compliant vehicles in Birmingham's fleet have triggered 3,262 daily charges and fines at a total cost of £472,253.
Government commissioners have been working with Birmingham City Council since it issued a so-called Section 114 notice in 2023 – declaring its own effective bankruptcy. In March, the council's then Labour leadership hailed its first balanced budget in three years.
The number of daily charges and fines the council has paid to itself represented around 20 times the number paid by any other UK council running a CAZ, Low Emission Zone (LEZ) or Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) which was able to disclose any similar payments for breaking their own emissions standards.
Money paid in charges and fines goes towards the CAZ operating costs and covering some Government charges, while any surplus has to be spent on transport or environmental schemes. It cannot go back into the council's general funds.
Kings Heath Food Bank coordinator Sharon Power said: "The country's in this state: people are having to choose to heat or eat and they're [the council] spending money right, left and centre. It's absolutely appalling."
Food bank organisers said their own work relied on the goodwill of volunteers, but some could not afford the city's CAZ charges.
They said fewer volunteers to drive donations around the city meant the food bank was helping half the number of people it used to support each week before the CAZ was introduced in 2021.
A request made to the council for the food bank's volunteers to be exempted from CAZ requirements was refused, its organisers said.
Under the CAZ scheme, the daily charge for vehicles that do not meet emission standards is £8 for cars, vans and taxis or £50 for HGVs and coaches, unless a valid exemption is in place.
It is enforced using Automatic Number Plate Recognition, which records vehicles travelling within the ring road.
Anyone who fails to pay within six days after entering the zone faces a £120 fine, which is reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.
Volunteer driver Pete Hammond was wrongly sent fines totalling around £800 for his trips for the food bank, which took him by surprise as his new car was the same model as his previous one.
The council insisted Pete ask the manufacturer for paperwork confirming the car met the rules. After he provided that, his fines were cancelled.
Using the Environmental Information Regulations, the BBC was able to secure data about the council's CAZ spending on purchase cards. The data did not make clear if or how often the council paid higher fines for late payment over all of the five years.
The most recent fines covered by council purchase cards in the past financial year were all paid by City Operations. There were four £60 payments on 30 March 2026.
Before the CAZ was introduced, the council said air pollution was responsible for shortening the lives of about 900 people per year.
Its aim was to reduce the most harmful air pollutants – nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.
William Bloss, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Birmingham, helped lead a study on the CAZ's impact.
He said research showed there were now fewer of the older, high-polluting vehicles driving in the CAZ and there had been a "definite, step change in NO2 levels [down 7-8%] linked to the policy".
Further health benefits would, however, need continued societal changes such as in how we heat out homes, not just the vehicles used on the city's roads.
A council spokesperson said it had now established a central Vehicle Management Service "to fast-track transition to a modernised, low emission fleet… driving efficiency, economy, safety and sustainability".
They said only 142 (12%) of the 1,170 council-owned vehicles in its fleet, as of 31 March, remained non-compliant with the CAZ requirements and a "large number of these vehicles were minibuses related to social services and education provision".
The spokesperson added the council was looking to develop "eco driving" across the fleet, starting with monitoring its vehicles' throttle usage, speed, mileage and idling in an effort to reduce fuel usage and carbon emissions.
The council said it ran some exemption schemes from CAZ charges subject to specific criteria being met, but there were none specifically for council vehicles or those used by its contractors.
Pollution charges first took effect in the UK in London's ULEZ in 2019. Bath became the first city to have a CAZ outside London in 2021 and six other English cities have since followed, including Birmingham. There are four further LEZs in Scotland.
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