One in four drivers caught out by £80 f ines for emissions
ONE in four motorists driving older vehicles through London has been stung by new greenemissions fines, prompting calls to halt similar schemes being rolled out around Britain.
Almost 130,000 drivers fell foul of the new Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) charges – levied against vehicles that don’t meet the required Euro 6 emissions standards – since their introduction, as Transport for London raked in about £ 26 million in levies and penalty charges.
The staggering figure has led to claims the Ulez was rolled out under the radar, with many drivers having no idea they should be paying the new fees, or even that they had been introduced.
As a result, angry drivers have branded Ulez a cash cow for TfL and warned against the rollout of similar schemes set for seven more British cities.
Launched on April 8, the zone – which covers most of Central London, including the City and Westminster – costs £12.50 for private cars, vans and motorcycles, and £ 100 for buses or coaches. Those who fail to pay are hit with a hefty £80 fine and a warning that if they don’t pay within seven days, the cost will rise to £160. Nearly 130,000 drivers have been fined in the three months since the zone’s introduction, or more than a quarter of the 433,358 older vehicles that have driven through it.
The majority of fines would have gone to diesel vehicles because petrol cars built after 2006 are normally exempt from the emission charges, but only diesel cars made after 2015 are likely to be in the clear.
At least three Facebook groups have been set up about the zone, with hundreds of motorists venting their anger.
Sherry Wilson, 43, said: ‘I don’t live in London but I know about the congestion charge so I paid it. I didn’t know about the Ulez charge. If I did I would have paid it. I rang TfL to say that I wouldn’t pay it as I didn’t know anything about it. They said I had to pay £80 and if I didn’t pay in seven days, it would go up to £160. I was unfairly treated.’
Rob Myers said: ‘Got home to an £80 penalty charge for a weekend trip into London at the end of May. Immediately rang TfL this evening to try to avoid another penalty for a second trip into London on Sunday, only to find out I’m 24 hours too late to pay a charge I knew nothing about till this evening. That’s another £80 into the TfL coffers.’
The RAC’s head of roads policy, Nicholas Lyes, added: ‘It is worrying there have been 130,000 fines in three months. There is more that needs to be done by the mayor to raise awareness of what the Ulez means to drivers and businesses before he expands the area it covers.’
Plans to extend the Ulez will come into effect on October 25, 2021, and will see it cover almost all of Greater London. And lowemission zones are planned in at least seven more cities across the UK in an effort to reduce air pollution. Leeds will be introducing one on January 6, 2020, covering most of the city centre, although the charge won’t affect private cars or motorbikes.
Birmingham has had a proposal for a wide-ranging, low-emission zone signed off by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and charges for private cars, taxis and buses come in on January 1, 2020.
Other councils have struggled to get similar plans past a furious backlash from residents. Early proposals in Bath were dropped after the council received 8,000 responses during a public consultation, though a reworked scheme is to be introduced from late 2020. Similar schemes are also been earmarked for Sheff i e l d, Greater Manchester, Oxford and Glasgow.
Helen Chapman, TfL’s director of l i censing, regulation and charging, said: ‘The Ultra Low Emission Zone has been introduced to significantly reduce pollution in the capital. Transport for London has been running an extensive communications campaign since spring 2018 to make drivers aware of it.’
‘It’s unfair as I didn’t know about the levy’