Boris’s council leader: Londonwide Ulez expansion has made residents so angry

‘It’s the wrong scheme, it’s hitting the wrong people, and it’s not solving the problem’
Ross Lydall @RossLydall17 February 2023

The Tory leader of Boris Johnson’s local council says the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone has sparked more “anger” among suburban Londoners than any other issue in the last decade.

Ian Edwards, leader of Hillingdon council, said residents strongly objected to the “unfairness” of a levy “being hoisted on the shoulders of low-income families, elderly families, and those least able to adapt”.

He said: “In my limited experience of local politics – just a decade – nothing has caused quite the anger amongst our residents as this extension of Ulez.”

Hillingdon is one of five Tory councils – the others are Harrow, Bexley, Bromley and Surrey County Council – that have applied for a judicial review of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to expand the Ulez Londonwide from August 29 this year.

Earlier this week Uxbridge and South Ruislip MP Mr Johnson – who drafted plans for the original central London Ulez while mayor – described the Greater London extension as “mad” and an “unfair tax grab”.

Mr Edwards threatened to take legal action against Mr Khan if Transport for London official “trespass on our land” to install Ulez cameras and road signs.

He told a council cabinet meeting on Thursday evening: “The Mayor’s assertions around air quality are just not accepted by people who every day go about their business in Hillingdon, and experience air quality [that is] by and large of a good standard.”

Hillingdon believes it has a good record on air pollution, having campaigned for years against the expansion of Heathrow airport.

It published maps showing levels of nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 particulates in its borough, which it claimed showed levels were below guidelines in between 60 per cent and 90 per cent of its streets.

However, the maps could also be interpreted as showing vast areas of the borough with air quality rates that breach World Health Organsation annual guidelines, of 5ug/m3 for PM2.5s nd 10ug/m3 for NO2.

Nitrogen dioxide levels in Hillingdon
Hillingdon council
PM2.5 particulate levels in Hillingdon
Hillingdon council

Councillor Douglas Mills, the council’s cabinet member for corporate services, said the “law of unintended consequences” was likely to lead to many elderly Londoners, who were more likely to have non-compliant cars, becoming more isolated.

“I had a resident in my own ward who said ‘If I lose my car, then I’m going to end up being isolated more and more at home and will end up being a burden upon the council’,” he said.

Hillingdon believes the scrappage grants being offered by Transport for London fall “woefully short” of the amount needed to buy a Ulez-compliant vehicle.

Mr Khan has rejected cross-party demands at City Hall to increase the size of the £110m fund – despite benefiting from an £188m windfall in extra council tax and business rates income.

Mr Mills said there were many examples of residents with non-compliant cars who do not qualify for the scrappage scheme “and even if they did, the amount involved would not give them the opportunity to purchase other vehicles”.

He added: “The other thing we will make clear… is the narrative that is coming out from City Hall about pollution levels, and the statistics being quoted, are a lot of nonsense. They are selected facts chosen at random to suit a particular story.

“But we know with this Mayor of London, why would he get facts get in the way of his prejudice against outer London?

“It’s the wrong scheme, it’s hitting the wrong people, and it’s not solving the problem.”

City Hall says it will keep the size of the scrappage scheme “under review”.

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