Bath Clean Air Zone for motorhomes (2026): when £9, £100, or free applies
Bath Clean Air Zone is Class C — cars and motorcycles are not charged. Non-compliant campervans up to 3.5 tonnes pay £9/day (gov.uk/clean-air-zones), 24/7. Non-compliant motorhomes over 3.5 tonnes pay £100/day (bathnes.gov.uk), but can apply to the council for reclassification to the £9 rate. Compliance threshold: Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel (most post-2015 diesels qualify).
Bath is the cheapest UK Clean Air Zone if you happen to be in a car — you pay nothing. Motorhome owners have to read the small print, because the same regulation hits a £9 campervan and a £100 coachbuilt very differently. The good news is the £100 rate is not the final word for most rigs; the council operates a reclassification route that moves larger motorhomes onto the £9 tier. That one form is the single most useful thing on this page.
What "Class C" actually means for motorhomes
England's Clean Air Zone framework defines four classes — A, B, C, and D — by which vehicle categories are charged. A is the lightest (buses, coaches, taxis only); D is the heaviest (everything including private cars). Bath is Class C, which means non-compliant vans, light goods vehicles, taxis, private-hire vehicles, minibuses, HGVs, buses, and coaches all pay the daily charge. Cars and motorcycles are not charged.
Motorhomes sit awkwardly because the regulation classifies them by weight, not by use. A campervan up to 3.5 tonnes — the most common UK motorhome category — is treated as a van for charging purposes and pays the £9/day light-vehicle rate. A motorhome over 3.5 tonnes is treated as an HGV by default and pays the £100/day heavy-vehicle rate. That's the regulation as written; the reclassification route below is the practical fix.
The Class C / Class D distinction is the single thing that catches out drivers visiting multiple UK CAZ cities. Birmingham and Bristol are both Class D — non-compliant cars pay £8/day in Birmingham and £9/day in Bristol. Bath is Class C — the same car pays nothing. Same petrol or diesel engine; entirely different bill. Sheffield, Bradford, and Tyneside are also Class C (cars free), and Portsmouth is lighter still at Class B (cars and vans free); only Birmingham and Bristol charge cars.
The £9/day rate (≤3.5t campervans)
If your campervan or motorhome is at or under 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (check the V5C log book — it's the line marked "revenue weight" or "maximum authorised mass"), and your engine is below the Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel compliance threshold, you pay £9 per day to enter the Bath CAZ (gov.uk/clean-air-zones).
The charge is per calendar day, not per crossing. One entry, ten entries, twelve hours inside, three minutes inside — all the same £9. The day runs midnight to midnight in local time, so a journey that crosses 00:00 inside the zone counts as two days. Pay before, on, or up to six days after the date of travel via the gov.uk Drive in a Clean Air Zone service.
The £100/day rate (>3.5t motorhomes) — and the reclassification path
Motorhomes over 3.5 tonnes default into the HGV tier and pay £100 per day if non-compliant (bathnes.gov.uk). This includes most coachbuilt and A-class motorhomes on the heavier Fiat Ducato Maxi or Iveco Daily chassis, anything on the older AL-KO chassis at 4.5t, and any rig that's been re-plated above 3.5t for payload reasons.
The practical answer is the reclassification route. Bath & North East Somerset Council recognises that a privately-used motorhome over 3.5t is not the same vehicle category as a logistics HGV, and operates a process to move qualifying rigs onto the £9 tier instead of the £100 tier. You apply via the CAZ section of bathnes.gov.uk; the council asks for your V5C log book (showing the vehicle is registered as a motor caravan) and photographic evidence of the vehicle. Turnaround varies, so apply before your trip rather than the morning of.
If you've already paid the £100 charge on a previous visit and the council subsequently approves your reclassification, refunds for the difference are handled through the published council process. The form is the single most useful thing on this page for any >3.5t motorhome owner planning to visit Bath.
Is your motorhome compliant?
The Bath CAZ compliance threshold is the same as London ULEZ and the Scottish LEZs:
- Petrol engines: Euro 4 or newer (most petrol vehicles registered from January 2006 onward).
- Diesel engines: Euro 6 or newer (most diesel cars and light vans registered from September 2015 onward; later on some heavier motorhome chassis).
The Euro class is recorded on Part I of your V5C log book — don't guess from the registration year alone, because some chassis lag the headline date by 18 to 24 months. If you're under the threshold, you pay the charge (or apply for reclassification if you're over 3.5t). If you're at or above the threshold, you owe nothing and the cameras simply log you and let you through.
The boundary — central Bath inside the inner ring
The CAZ covers central Bath inside the inner ring road. The boundary is signposted at every arterial entry, and the camera positions are documented in the boundary map at bathnes.gov.uk/bath-clean-air-zone. The zone is compact — small enough that a non-compliant rig can usually park outside the boundary at one of the council park-and-ride sites (Lansdown, Newbridge, or Odd Down) and travel in by bus rather than paying the daily charge.
The boundary excludes the M4 motorway, the A4 ring road, and most of the residential outer city. If you're routing past Bath rather than into it, your route does not enter the zone and you owe nothing. Check the map before assuming a route is clean.
Camera enforcement and how the PCN works
Enforcement is by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR). Cameras at every boundary entry photograph the plates of vehicles entering the zone; the system checks each plate against the DVLA database for the Euro class and the vehicle category, and applies the appropriate charge. There is no in-vehicle device, no sticker, and no requirement to register in advance — though you may want to set up an auto-pay account if you visit often.
If you owe the daily charge and don't pay within six days of the date of travel, the council issues a Penalty Charge Notice on top of the unpaid charge. The PCN amount is not stated on this page — contact Bath & North East Somerset Council directly for current penalty figures, since they're subject to council review. The practical guidance: pay within the six-day window and you avoid the PCN entirely.
Paying the charge
Pay via the gov.uk Drive in a Clean Air Zone service at gov.uk/clean-air-zones. The same service handles Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Tyneside, and any other England CAZ — one account, one payment flow, all zones.
You can pay before your trip, on the day, or up to six days after. Auto-pay accounts are available if you visit regularly; they charge your payment method automatically on any day the cameras log your plate inside the zone. Useful if you live in Wiltshire, Somerset, or Bristol and pass through Bath on a regular school run, hospital trip, or work commute — saves the six-day-deadline anxiety.
Which apps warn you before the boundary
The cameras enforce automatically, so the cost of a missed boundary check is the £9 or £100 charge plus the PCN if you forget to pay. The single most useful thing a motorhome sat nav can do is warn you a few hundred metres before you cross the line, so you can re-route, park outside, or pay before you trigger anything.
Most consumer apps (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze) don't warn at all — they route through CAZ boundaries the same as any car. The motorhome-aware apps that do warn are covered in the sibling matrix page: LEZ alert apps for motorhomes in Europe compares Sygic Truck & Camper, CoPilot Caravan, TomTom GO Navigation in Camper mode, and Rovee on coverage of UK CAZ zones and continental LEZ systems. Rovee adds the UK CAZ rule set into the same offline cache it uses for European LEZ boundaries, so warnings work whether you have signal or not.
Rovee names which UK Clean Air Zone you're approaching, which class applies, and what your rig owes — before you cross the boundary. The PCN that arrives in the post is the cost of the consumer-app gap; the app warning is the cheap insurance.
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FAQ
How much is the Bath CAZ charge for a motorhome?
It depends on weight. Campervans up to 3.5 tonnes pay £9 per day if non-compliant (petrol below Euro 4 or diesel below Euro 6). Motorhomes over 3.5 tonnes pay £100 per day under the default HGV-tier classification, but Bath & North East Somerset Council operates a reclassification route that drops larger motorhomes to the £9 rate — well worth doing before any trip into central Bath. Cars and motorcycles are not charged at all; Bath is a Class C zone, not a Class D zone like Birmingham.
My motorhome is over 3.5t — how do I get reclassified to the £9 rate?
Apply via bathnes.gov.uk. The council asks for your V5C log book (showing the vehicle is registered as a motorhome / motor caravan) and photographs of the vehicle. Once approved, you pay the £9/day campervan rate instead of the £100/day HGV rate. If you have already paid the £100 charge, the council will refund the difference retroactively in line with their published process. The form sits inside the wider CAZ section at bathnes.gov.uk — apply before your trip if you can.
Is my motorhome CAZ-compliant?
Petrol engines need to be Euro 4 or newer (roughly 2006 onward). Diesel engines need to be Euro 6 or newer (roughly September 2015 onward for cars and light vans; later for some heavier chassis). This is the same threshold as London ULEZ and Scottish LEZs, so a single emissions check applies across all three systems. The Euro class is recorded on Part I of your V5C log book; check that line first rather than guessing from the registration year.
Does Bath CAZ apply on weekends?
Yes. The Bath Clean Air Zone operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There is no time-of-day, day-of-week, weekend, or bank-holiday exemption. The cameras run continuously, and the daily charge applies on any calendar day you are inside the zone — including a brief midnight crossing that technically counts as two charging days if you stay past 00:00.
What's the difference between Bath's CAZ and Birmingham's CAZ?
Bath is Class C — cars and motorcycles are not charged. Birmingham is Class D — cars are charged on top of vans, taxis, HGVs, and buses. The daily charges for chargeable vehicles and the Euro-class compliance thresholds are comparable across the two cities (£9 for light, £100 for heavy in both), but the headline impact for a holiday driver is very different: a non-compliant car costs nothing in Bath and £8 per day in Birmingham. A non-compliant campervan costs £9 per day in either.
When can I get Rovee?
Rovee is in closed iPhone beta in 2026, with public launch on Friday August 7, 2026. Founding-member access is capped at the first 1,000 members at €17.99/year price-locked as long as you stay subscribed. Join the waitlist below.