CAZ protest to be held in Bradford city centre in March

The protest, organised by the Campaign Against CAZ Tax in Bradford, will take place starting at 12noon in Centenary Square outside City Hall on Saturday, March 4.

The group organising a Bradford protest against the Clean Air Zone held a similar protest in Sheffield (Image: UGC)

The protest is two-pronged with campaigners inviting protesters to Say No To 15 Minute Neighbourhoods and Say No To the Clean Air Zone Tax in Bradford.

Matthew Betts, a member of the Campaign Against CAZ Tax in Bradford, explained: "They're both part and parcel of the same thing."

The group campaigned heavily to stop the Clean Air Zone charge in Bradford before it was implemented in September 2022.

The group organising a Bradford protest against the Clean Air Zone held a similar protest in Sheffield (Image: UGC)

The group has kept up its campaign in cities across the UK which have established or attempted to implement clean air zones.

"It's become a national campaign," said Mr Betts. "We targeting cities bringing in chargeable clean air zones like Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol. Sheffield is our biggest team."

Mr Betts also explained that the implementation of 15-minute neighbourhoods has also become part of the group's focus, and the Sheffield group recently held a large protest against 15-minute neighbourhoods.

This bus was used in a Clean Air Zone protest in Bradford last year (Image: UGC)

The concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods has proved controversial in cities such as Oxford, where traffic filter proposals were considered by Oxfordshire County Council last autumn.

A councillor in Oxford said the filters would turn Oxford into "a 15-minute city" with local services within a small walking radius.

Duncan Enright, Oxfordshire County Council's cabinet member for travel and development strategy, said: "It is about making sure you have the community centre which has all of those essential needs, the bottle of milk, pharmacy, GP, schools which you need to have a 15-minute neighbourhood."

People can drive freely around their own neighbourhood and can apply for a permit to drive through the filters, and into other neighbourhoods, for up to 100 days per year. This equates to an average of two days per week.

The aim is to reduce traffic in the city centre and make city living more pleasant, but critics say the plans will negatively affect businesses and the city centre's economy.

"Apparently, certain areas are doing this and nobody is happy about it," said Mr Betts. "If this happens, they would chop Bradford into a pizza.

"It's not like a lockdown but is a type of control - a control on movement.

"Putting everything within a 15-minute walk is a great idea but not everybody wants to do it."

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