Yunex wins Sheffield’s CAZ enforcement infrastructure

Sheffield City Council has awarded Yunex Traffic a contract to design and implement an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera monitoring and enforcement solution for its proposed clean air zone (CAZ).

The zone is scheduled to come into effect next year as a class C CAZ applied to buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, vans and minibuses.

This follows research undertaken by Sheffield City Council, which showed that air pollution contributes to around 500 deaths a year in the city, with the largest cause of pollution being transport and diesel vehicles.

The Class C scheme aims to discourage drivers of the most polluting vehicles from entering the zone and encourage them to upgrade to cleaner, low- or zero-emission vehicles.

The solution will involve the installation of the company’s Sicore II cameras at 26 permanent locations across Sheffield to identify and register every vehicle entering the zone.

Wilke Reints, managing director of Yunex Traffic UK, said, “Following the research undertaken by Sheffield City Council, we are delighted to be working with the team to deliver a clean air zone solution that meets the city’s specific needs.

“Once live, the Clean Air Zone will play a vital role in not only changing drivers’ behaviour, but ultimately reducing transport emissions and improving the health of those living and travelling in Sheffield.”

Money raised through penalty charges will reportedly be used only to cover the costs of operating the zone itself, to support owners of affected vehicles, and for other schemes to improve air quality.

Sicore ANPR cameras have been designed to provide three-lane coverage with a single camera, as well high image quality and number plate read accuracy for residential, city, rural and motorway environments.