By Mathew Carr
March 22, 2024
Going backward?
Proposal says: Within 90 days of the passing of this Act, Transport for London must make
an order to vary the boundary of the ultra low emission zone provided for
in the Greater London Low Emission Zone Charging Order 2006, as amended.
MPs said today the London Mayor Sadiq Khan (from the Labour party at local level — Labour is the main opposition party at national level) had no mandate for the expansion last year and some businesses just inside the zone had lost a lot of revenue because customers were no longer willing to drive into the zone from outside, incurring a ULEZ fee of £12.50 per day if they have older vehicles that emit a lot of pollution.
The counter to this is businesses just outside the zone will be benefiting.
The poorer drivers will be suffering the most as the fee is flat and more wealthy drivers can more easily afford to upgrade to a more energy efficient car (or get a taxi). Public transport services in many places on the city’s outskirts has been downgraded in recent years. The middle of London has great public transport.
Yet, everyone in the wider zone is benefitting from the cleaner air. In other words, poor people often are forced to live in the most polluted streets, so that’s a counterpoint to the argument poorer drivers are hurt most by the charge.
Children with asthma have benefitted too, parliament heard Friday.
The consultation by Khan was deeply flawed, the Conservatives argued, with most people against. The expansion happened anyway.
Some people in outer areas of London are telling CarrZee that Khan’s expansion is a grab for money, so he can offer subsidized transport in inner London, and there is some truth to this cross-subsidization argument.
See the debate here:
For instance 12 noon ish (and before and after)
Here is the proposal:
My understanding is the zone could be reduced back to green area from the blue area (in order to shore up support for the Conservatives political party in the national UK elections expected by January next year).
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64733216
This story from Dec. 2023 …
CarrZee: this sort of inefficient, geo-specific legislation would probably not be needed if the whole country had carbon pricing that applied to all fossil-fuel motor vehicles.
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