Danny Hopkins mulls over the best way to resist ULEZ
The debate over the extension of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone is a noisy one, with several councils deciding not to cooperate with the zone’s expansion. Despite ULEZ being entirely the wrong sledgehammer for the emissions nut, I am still not on board with the Sadiq Khan-bashing that seems to be part of the anti-ulez routine. For starters, it was Boris Johnson who first championed ULEZ in 2015.
Mayor Khan has targets to hit and lobbies to keep happy. He also has thousands of case studies, parents of kids with asthma, who want something done to give their little ones a decent quality of life. That’s a very compelling set of pressures to deal with and it means we need to be very careful with our arguments.
First let’s recognise that ULEZ isn’t about global warming, it’s designed primarily to improve local air quality. It’s also not only driven by the green lobby, but the major manufacturers are also behind it. Stimulating demand for new cars is easier when older cars are being legislated off the road, so we need to talk about that with Mr Khan before we start giving environmentalists a kicking. We also need to demand (and pay for?) better, safer, more frequent, more reliable, cheaper public transport BEFORE we restrict the choice of low-income families. Let's aim at bigger fish, with bigger emissions problems… housing associations and landlords who don’t upgrade boilers spring to mind.
This isn’t a party political bun fight, this is a complex debate, so let’s stop shouting and start working together. Be positive, clear and go back to the core argument. That a well looked after, older car emits way less than the average central heating boiler. We are evolving quickly to cleaner cars, so why destroy the independence of low income earners?
‘Not a bun fight, but a complex debate’