Vehicle pollution zone to cover all of London

Older and more heavily polluting vehicles will have to pay to enter the entire metropolitan area of London from next August, the British capital’s mayor said Friday.

Sadiq Khan said the ultralow emission zone (ULEZ) would be expanded beyond its current confines from August 29, to encompass the entire nine million people of Greater London.

Announcing a parallel expansion of bus services in outer London, he argued that air pollution from older and heavier vehicles was making Londoners “sick from cradle to the grave”.

The ULEZ had already proven “transformational”, the mayor said, and its extension would mean “five million more people will be able to breathe cleaner air and live healthier lives”.

But the plan has prompted a fierce backlash from political opponents and some residents in the capital, who point to a consultation held indicating that a majority of Londoners opposed extending the zone.

The two-month outreach exercise – held earlier this year by Transport for London (TfL), which runs the capital’s various transport systems – heard from 57,913 people, including nearly 12,000 campaigners on either side of the issue.

Although it found 55 percent of respondents had “some concern” about their local air quality, the consultation also recorded 59 percent as opposed to the ULEZ being expanded at all.

That rose to 70 percent in the outer London areas set to be part of the enlargement.

“Sadiq Khan has broken his promise to listen to Londoners,” the Conservative grouping in London’s devolved lawmaking assembly said on Twitter.

“He must U-TURN on the ULEZ expansion.”

The zone has already been expanded once since it was introduced in April 2019, and today covers a large area within London’s North and South Circular inner ring-roads and the city centre.

Unless their vehicles are exempt, drivers entering the zone have to pay a daily charge of £12.50 (US$15).