Criminal damage to public property continues in Coulsdon, as data suggests a sharp reduction in the most polluting vehicles using the capital’s roads
Expansion: ULEZ has helped to improve air quality in central London. The Tories oppose it
Just as it did in inner London when introduced (by the then-Mayor, Boris Johnson, in case you needed reminding), all the early signs are that ULEZ is already working in outer London.
According to figures made available at the start of this month, outer London has seen a rapid increase in vehicle compliance – meaning many fewer of the more polluting vehicles are still using our roads.
Around 95% of vehicles across both inner and outer London now adhere to the clean air standards – a huge turnaround from the 39% in 2017 when Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced the Toxicity Charge.
Data indicates a 10 percentage point increase in vehicles that reach ULEZ standards since the start of the expansion consultation in May last year alone.
Cut-off point: there’s more than a hint of Islamophobia about some ULEZ opposition
Compliance among vans – some of the biggest polluters – in outer London is now at 86%, up from 79.5% last June. Many firms have upgraded their fleets to electric.
Deadly air pollution disproportionately affects London’s most vulnerable – the economically disadvantaged, and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
The capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone today, including the outer London expansion introduced last August, now cover the majority of Greater London, almost 580 sq miles. That makes it the the world’s largest urban anti-pollution zone, covering an area where 9million people live.
Those few who insist on continuing to the drive the most polluting vehicles in London, and who have failed to take advantage of the £2,000 grants available under the Mayor’s scrappage scheme (37,000 households did so), are now charged £12.50 a day.
“Londoners are experiencing a greener, cleaner, and healthier city,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
High levels of toxic air, greater than the limits advised by the World Health Organization, silently claim the lives of approximately 4,000 Londoners prematurely every year. All Londoners currently live in areas exceeding the WHO air quality guidelines for harmful micro-particles PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Having a polluting and licence-breaking waste incinerator in this corner of south London makes an already bad situation worse, with infant mortality rates downwind of Viridor’s noxious Beddington incinerator soaring since it began operation.
Pollution from road vehicles, meanwhile, continues to take its toll.
More than 500,000 Londoners suffer from asthma and are vulnerable to the effects of toxic air. More than half of these people live in outer London, based on NHS data.
The expansion to outer London was based on the NHS’s hard data of the health costs caused by toxic air, and from modelling of the changes to air quality in inner London. Harmful NO2 concentrations alongside roads are estimated to be 46% lower than they would have been without the ULEZ and its inner London expansion.
Criminal damage: this was on Markpit Avenue earlier this month. Croydon Mayor Jason Perry continues to run a Facebook group opposing ULEZ
Cumulatively since 2019, it is estimated the ULEZ has led to a reduction of around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from vehicles across London over the four-year period compared to without the ULEZ – and reducing the greenhouse gas is only a side effect of ULEZ.
But there remain some out there, causing criminal damage to public property all in the apparent belief that it is their “democratic” right to cause tens of thousands of pounds of additional costs to the public.
These are the same people who can sometimes be seen brandishing yellow boards proclaiming their opposition to covid vaccinations, masks and the use of debit cards, all with more than a suggestion of a nasty streak of racism and Islamophobia.
As someone of a more reasoned and thoughtful disposition, less-inclined to Trumpesque conspiracy theories, posted on social media last week, said of the latest felling of a lamp-post and ULEZ camera on Marlpit Avenue: “I trust our local Conservatives and Mayor who have overall control of the council have vociferously opposed this vandalism of ULEZ cameras, and warned perpetrators that if found they will be taken to task before the courts.”
Meanwhile, Croydon’s pro-pollution Mayor, Jason Perry, continues to act as the administrator of an anti-ULEZ Facebook group which fails to condemn any such acts.
Read more: Perry’s Facebook group hosted video by Islamophobic ‘comic’
Read more: Met appeals for witnesses after two arrests over ULEZ bomb
Read more: Viridor’s charge sheet: incinerator operator’s eco-vandalism
Read more: Tory minister is member of online group that salutes vandals
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
I trust the police are actively investigating this racially-motivated crime that puts children at risk of electrocution