In support of Greater Manchester’s aim to drive the growth of a healthy and sustainable city-region, Egis has been awarded a significant new five-and-a-half year contract to help deliver the largest Clean Air Zone in the UK.
The Egis led team will comprise key supply chain partners Yunex Traffic (the new name for Siemens ITS) and Imperial Civil Enforcement Solutions.
Egis have signed a ground-breaking contract to set up and operate an end-to-end service for Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) program for the next five years. This is to meet a government mandate to introduce a Category C class Clean Air Zone, which includes non-compliant buses and coaches, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), light goods vehicles (LGVs) or vans, minibuses, taxis and private hire vehicles.
The CAZ is anticipated to launch on 30 May 2022 and will operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day. It will be enforced by a network of ALPR cameras, manufactured and supplied by Yunex Traffic from within the UK. Vehicles liable to pay the charge will pay using the government’s online portal with discounts and exemptions available for some vehicle types.
The aim of the Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone is to secure compliance with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) legal limits on local roads in the shortest possible time, and by 2024 at the latest, by: Reducing the use of non-compliant high emitting vehicles; changing the behaviour of users of the transport network; and encouraging those that have to travel by road to upgrade to cleaner vehicles
As part of this project, Egis will be responsible for the successful installation and delivery of the following key aspects of the service, including the installation and maintenance of close to 900 ALPR cameras, a public-facing CAZ office to handle payments, discounts, exemptions and financial reconciliation along with any Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) that are issued to non-payers of the charge.
Greater Manchester lead for clean air, Councillor Andrew Western, says: “We, as a city region, are committed to tackling air pollution, which is the biggest environmental public health issue facing the city-region and contributes to around 1,200 deaths in Greater Manchester alone each year.
“That’s why we have developed a Clean Air Plan that not only helps us meet government requirements on nitrogen dioxide air pollution, but also delivers major health benefits for our residents; and the funding support for those businesses, individuals and organisations who need to upgrade their vehicle to become compliant.
“We are looking forward to working with Egis to help us deliver the plan, improve the quality of our air and ensure Greater Manchester continues to be a healthy, sustainable and happy place to grow up, get on and grow old.”
The project implementation phase will begin in earnest from July 2021 with an implementation period through to the end of January 2022. The extensive trial and testing period will run over four months between February and May 2022. The Clean Air Zone is anticipated to go live at the end of May 2022. The contract period will be for five and a half years with possible extensions for a further three years.
By securing this prestigious Clean Air Zone project in one of the UK’s premier city regions, Egis is strengthening its position in the automated payment and enforcement market. Building on this success and with work already underway in locations from Amsterdam to Paris the business aims to grow its service offering in this area across more than 50 cities in Europe and numerous other countries across the globe.
