Moving house in Birmingham: the Clean Air Zone and city centre moves

The Clean Air Zone covers the area of the city centre inside the A4540 Middleway, but not the Middleway itself. It operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. There are no barriers: number plate cameras check vehicles against the emission standard, and signs mark the boundary and the approaches.

Because the Middleway is outside the zone, a lorry can sometimes reach an address just outside the ring without being charged. The council's postcode checker is only a guide near the boundary, since some postcodes straddle it. If your new or old address is close to the ring road, ask the removal company to check the exact route.

Source: brumbreathes.co.uk

Birmingham charges a daily fee to cars, taxis and vans that do not meet the emission standard, and a much higher one to coaches, buses and heavy goods vehicles. A chargeable day runs from midnight to midnight, so a move that starts late in the evening and finishes after midnight counts as two days.

The fee can be paid online through the government's Clean Air Zone service or by phone, from six days before the visit until six days after it. Miss that window and a penalty charge notice can follow. Fleet operators who move people across the city every week tend to have replaced older diesels already; it is the occasional hire van, borrowed pickup or budget one-person outfit that tends to get caught.

• the removal lorry and any van: compliant or not
• your own car if you are moving boxes yourself
• whether the move crosses midnight
• who pays the fee and whether it is in the quote
• the exact route if the address is near the Middleway

Source: brumbreathes.co.uk · gov.uk

City centre moves often involve blocks of flats with loading bays, booked lift slots and concierge rules. The council publishes a directory of city centre loading bays, which helps when a building has no dedicated loading area. Ask the building's management for its move-in rules before you book, and give them to the removal company so the crew arrives in the right window with the right protection for lifts and corridors.

Source: birmingham.gov.uk

Beyond the ring road, moves are mostly outside the zone entirely. There, Birmingham's residents' permit schemes and busy terraced streets in older inner suburbs decide how close a lorry can park. The council issues resident and business permits; it is worth asking your removal firm, before booking, whether it will arrange space with the council or simply rely on finding room on the day.

Tell us where you are moving from and to, roughly how many rooms, and when. Removal firms that serve Birmingham see the job without your name or number; one firm can buy it, after which nobody else can. Before that firm is shown your details, our email tells you who it is, with its address and phone number. You pay nothing to Offrano, and turning down the firm's price costs nothing either.