The Mayor of London wants to expand his Ultra Low Emission Zone to the whole of London. This means a £12.50 daily charge for any vehicle driven in London that doesn’t meet the ULEZ standard. You can say no to his plans by signing our petition and to help you decide here are 8 crazy facts about the ULEZ which Sadiq Kahn doesn't want you to know!
1. ULEZ expansion will cost £400m- the same as 1000 electric buses!
Expanding the ultra-low emission zone across the entirety of Greater London would cost around £400m, the majority of which would fund hundreds of cameras to make sure motorists pay the daily levy. Many have suggested the money could be better spent elsewhere. According to some sources, £400m could buy 1000 new electric buses, but instead the Mayor is proposing a surveillance system and a tax on countless Londoners.
2. ULEZ is another squeeze of £12.50 a DAY on hard working families during a cost-of-living crisis!
This proposal will have a serious impact on working families as they are simultaneously being squeezed by the cost-of-living crisis. More than 3.5m more people will live within the zone if it is expanded with more than 100,000 cars affected costing drivers an extra £4,500 a year.
3. ULEZ is unfair on commuters and businesses in outer London.
Many areas of outer London including large parts of Merton do not have the same transport options as Central London making people more reliant on cars in their daily lives. This could also have an adverse effect on businesses as they expect to see reduced customers as major transport hubs are included in the proposals, discouraging people from travelling further out to places like Morden. Michael Lloyd of the Federation of Small Businesses said there is “great cause for concern” for an expanded ULEZ.
4. Nearly 5,000 innocent drivers have already been fined £160 from car cloning practices. Expanding ULEZ will make this worse.
4,700 tickets have been issued to innocent motorists since October. Many penalties originally issued to innocent drivers for failed ULEZ entry payments in non-compliant vehicles have been scrapped after it was discovered that the offending vehicles were using copycat number plates. There are concerns that expanding ULEZ will lead to another increase in innocent people being fined.
5. TfL could lose as much as £100m from scheme due to a lack of non-ULEZ compliant vehicles.
Due to the difficulty in predicting the number of non-compliant vehicles that would drive in London TfL’s board was told that last October’s ULEZ earnings were already £182m lower than expected. More than 92% of vehicles seen in the zone do not have to pay. Additionally, 82% of vehicles in outer London already comply with the ULEZ standards making it unlikely the proposed expansion will make up for these losses.
6. ULEZ discriminates against people who can’t afford newer vehicles.
The proposed expansion of ULEZ would have a grave effect on the families of London who can’t afford to shell out for a new electric or fuel-efficient vehicle. Many diesel cars made before 2015 will be forced to pay more, and this would be an addition to the diesel surcharge they already pay already! The daily £12.50 charge will create added pressure for families who are trying to recover after the pandemic and as the cost-of-living increases.
7. Our local Labour Party and Liberal Democrats are supporting the ULEZ expansion.
In 2019 the local Liberal Democrats proposed expanding the ULEZ to Merton and our Labour-run Council have supported Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ from the beginning, neither of them are interested in helping residents who rely on their cars for transport or protecting people from another cost-of-living squeeze!
8. You can say NO to the ULEZ expansion!
You can sign our petition and say “No!” in TfL’s formal consultation. This will show Sadiq Khan that we don’t want his ULEZ expansion!
