HUNDREDS of businesses in London are to be charged £80 a year for every vehicle they want to bring into a new traffic-free zone.

The zone, blocked off by four sets of metre-high automated bollards which rise out of the ground, will be launched at the end of this month.

Operating from 11am to 7pm seven days a week, it is aimed at preventing unauthorised vehicles from using Rye Lane in Peckham Rye at the busiest times of the day. Authorised vehicles - those belonging to shopkeepers and other businesses with premises in Rye Lane, Choumert Road and Alpha Road, orange and blue disabled badge holders and emergency and delivery vehicles - will use swipe cards or a video/voice entry system to lower the bollards.

However, businesses will only be given one free pass for a year, before they have to start paying the £80 charge.