PRIVATE hire drivers are set to hold a protest outside City Hall next week over plans for a Clean Air Zone.

Bradford Council wants to introduce the zone in January and would see the most polluting vehicles charged to to enter the city centre.

It means taxis and private hire vehicles that do not meet emission standards would face having to pay £12.50 a day to enter the city.

Now members of the Private Hire Operators Association are to protest against the move on two days next week. They will drive past City Hall at 1pm on May 5 and 6 to make their point.

Nadeem Ahmed, secretary of the PHOA in Bradford, said: "The charge is unreasonable and excessive and would see around 90 per cent of our drivers having to pay £12.50 a day to work in the city centre."

He said they thought it was a bad policy and that there had not been enough consultation with the trade.

"It's economic sabotage," he added.

The Clean Air Zone is being introduced after the Government ordered Bradford Council to reduce illegal levels of pollution in the district.

The Government has provided millions in grants to local vehicle owners to upgrade their vehicles to cleaner models - which would help them avoid the charge.

It follows a similar protest by hackney carriage drivers last month, and calls for a strike by taxi drivers in the city to take place over two days next month.

The Council has previously said it is under a Government directive to introduce a Clean Air Zone, adding: “We are continuing to have conversations with the trade to support drivers to adapt and have already secured higher levels of grants from the Government for taxi and private hire drivers than other Clean Air Zone local authorities have received."