On 15th March Bath became the first city outside London to introduce a Clean Air Zone and start charging non-compliant commercial vehicles to access the city centre.

Change is always a critical challenge for businesses. Trading conditions can change in many shapes and forms for all sorts of companies. Sometimes this is planned change from within a business to keep ahead of competition or to keep up with market expectations. Sometimes this change can be imposed from outside the business by regulators or governments.

From whichever direction change originates it always distinguishes between a well-run, forward-thinking business from a poorly managed backwards-looking business.

A well-run company will always do everything it can to plan for change and make certain that it is prepared and ahead of its markets. It will see change as an opportunity to shine, rather than a threat to regret.

The Bath Clean Air Zone is very likely to be the first of many. Councils across the region will be watching with interest to see the rollout, learn from it and plan for their own future.

As a business that operates in urban centres throughout the region we are proud that we have identified this and made a major investment that will enable our clients to continue to have uninterrupted waste collection in Bath and in other places as they inevitably roll out their own CAZs, without incurring extra charges or fines.

We’ll be making a major announcement about this soon.