EMISSION ZONES INFO
LONDON MAYOR HINTS ULEZ EXPANSION COULD BE DELAYED DUE TO COST OF LIVING CRISIS
Sadiq Khan has given his first hint that he could delay the expansion of the ULEZ across Greater London. The mayor said the option of delaying the zone’s widening next August was “in the mix” due to the cost of living crisis. It is the first time he has conceded the expansion could be in doubt. Mr Khan came under pressure at Mayor’s Question Time from Tory members of the London Assembly over his plans to expand the £12.50- a-day ULEZ beyond its current North and South Circular Road boundaries across all 33 boroughs.
Tory assembly member Neil Garratt told him there were Londoners facing the choice of eating or heating this winter, and also facing the risk of having to replace their car to comply with the ULEZ emission rules. He asked Mr Khan whether he “could take the weight off people’s minds” and delay the expansion from the August 29 date that has been earmarked. Mr Khan said: “The question is: will I today rule out an expansion? I have explained that TfL is looking at the responses to the con-
sultation, there will be analysis undertaken by an independent consultant, and the recom- mendation will come to me before the end of the year. “I’m now being asked: will I rule out the expansion taking place in August? The answer is I have not made up my mind until I have seen the report and the analysis that is being done by TfL.” It comes after controversy over the official consultation this summer, which has reportedly resulted in almost two-thirds of the 58,000 responses opposing expansion.
PLEA FOR EXTRA FUNDING AS GLASGOW LEZ DATES CONFIRMED AMID COUNCILLORS’ CONFLICT
A plea for more funding to support taxi operators across Glasgow will be issued to the Scottish Government before the LEZ is introduced. Despite a bid to push back the start of the LEZ by a year, members of the city admin- istration committee agreed on 13 October to push ahead as planned and implement the measures from June 2023.
Residents within the LEZ will have an extra year to comply with the new rules. But concerns have been raised by Labour and Conservative mem- bers about how this will impact the taxi trade, with drivers having to spend vast amounts of money on retrofit devices to make sure their vehicles comply by next June. Glasgow’s Conservative group wanted to delay the LEZ by a year for non-residential vehicles in line
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with other Scottish cities, while Labour asked the administration to write to the Scottish Govern- ment to request more funding to support the taxi trade but stopped short of calling for a further delay. Following the meeting, Conser- vative Cllr Thomas Kerr, said this lack of an agreed position on LEZs is an “insult” to taxi drivers who are fearing the loss of their livelihoods. He said: “Labour are all over the place. Their lack of decision- making at this committee meeting was nothing short of a shambles. They appeared happy to back my plans for a further delay, only to then decide they couldn’t. “Our hard working taxi drivers deserve better than that. They are worried about their livelihoods. “Labour backed an adequate transition period in their council election manifesto but now can’t
even define what that would be. “I’ve been proud to stand up for taxi drivers across the city since this policy was first mooted and I was proud to do so again today through my amendment. “I will look to safeguard their future as much as possible if this policy does come into force next June. The onus is on Labour now to urgently clarify if they are still on the side of taxi drivers after their mixed messaging at this meeting.” Leader of the Labour group, Cllr George Redmond, responded: “Labour could have made the easy choice and dug our heels in for a proposal we knew would not succeed. “There were not enough votes in the room. Instead of playing games like the Tories, we made the choice to be realistic and get what support we could for taxi drivers.”
NOVEMBER 2022 PHTM
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