Hornchurch & Upminster MP, Julia Lopez, has this week written to Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan and met the government’s Roads Minister to ask Mr Khan to think again about his plan to extend car charging to Havering from August, amid concerns that this is just the start of daily vehicle levies in outer London. She has also called on Havering’s Council Leader to work with other outer London boroughs and Home Counties authorities to highlight the negative impact daily car-charging will have on local residents and businesses.
Mrs Lopez’s efforts come after Havering residents reacted with dismay to the Mayor’s confirmation that he will be extending his Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) next summer, imposing a daily charge of £12.50 on older vehicles that drive within the zone.
Mrs Lopez had collected large numbers of submissions from concerned constituents to share with the Mayor when his plan was first mooted, reflecting the views of the majority of Londoners, who were revealed to have strongly opposed the ULEZ extension in Transport for London’s official consultation. Mayor Khan has confirmed that he will be pushing ahead with the controversial ULEZ extension despite 70 percent of outer Londoners and 60 percent of all respondents expressing their opposition in TfL’s survey.
Since news of his plan broke, Mrs Lopez has received a huge volume of correspondence from concerned constituents, which she has now formally shared in a letter to Mr Khan asking him to think again.
In the meantime, Mrs Lopez has joined forces with other Conservative MPs in London and the Home Counties to oppose the ULEZ extension. They have written a letter of collective opposition to the Mayor and together met in parliament this week with Roads Minister, Richard Holden MP, to raise their concern that the Mayor is using weak evidence on air pollution to disguise what is a revenue-grabbing measure to plug TfL’s finances. Once the costly infrastructure is in place to charge older vehicles, MPs expressed their worry to Minister Holden that Mr Khan will change the goal posts, bringing a much wider range of vehicles into scope.
Mr Holden confirmed that the Mayor has the power under the devolution settlement to impose the ULEZ extension unilaterally, but will be writing to MPs to clarify a number of issues raised in the meeting including whether boroughs have any means of opposing charging infrastructure through the planning system. Mrs Lopez has now written to Havering Council’s Leader to ask whether he plans to join forces with other boroughs in resisting Mr Khan’s ULEZ extension.
Mrs Lopez said, ‘Everyone wants to breathe cleaner air. But the Mayor’s own impact assessment suggests that air quality improvements in Havering from extending ULEZ will be incredibly small. I share residents’ worry that this is instead a naked revenue-raising measure which will be expanded once he has the cameras in place to charge outer Londoners for using their cars.
Outer London is not the same as inner London - there is not the same level of public transport to allow those who rely on their vehicles simply to jump on the tube or bus if they cannot afford to pay £12.50 daily.
As residents are saying to me, people are really worried that from August next year, they won’t be able to buy another car or front this charge, so will have to forgo critical trips to see loved ones, run their businesses, go to work or attend important appointments.
My constituents and I would welcome genuine efforts to improve air quality in outer London however we cannot support the imposition of a daily tax that will most severely impact the vulnerable and small businesses during these challenging times. These proposals must be rethought, and I will continue to work with our Assembly Member, Cllr Keith Prince, and other MPs to represent residents’ opposition to the Mayor.’
To view Mrs Lopez’s letter in full, please see her website article here - https://www.julialopez.co.uk/news/julia-lopez-mp-lobbies-mayor-against-ulez-expansion
