The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has insisted he has a mandate from Londoners to expand the city’s ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) despite not including the move in his 2020 manifesto. In a clash with Conservative assembly members on the issue during Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall this morning, (Thursday, June 22), Mr Khan was also accused of “rushing” the policy through before the next mayoral election in May 2024, and not wanting to give Londoners a say.
Nobody really can argue with better public health, and if you’ve got an ancient car from 2006 then you should be considering an upgrade. This is nudge policy and it makes a lot of sense.
Looking wider, this winds a lot of people up but they have to vote for someone. Shaun Bailey was an absolutely useless candidate and he got sent packing by a slick, grown up machine running the London Mayoral campaign almost to perfection. They can also point to success with Crossrail, a true game changer for London even with the expensive over runs on delivery. I just can’t see the Conservative Party getting a look in on this issue, they can moan all they like but Khan is a smooth operator with his ducks in a row. Who will stand for them? Nobody apparently. It’ll be another term for Khan, I will bet my Oyster card on it.
Often when this comes up, you’ll see someone pop up with something like “I need my van for my work, there is no way I can get another van”, and you feel a bit sorry for them.
Then you go for a walk, get smogged by some ratty old transit pulling away from the lights, and remember why this is being done.
They can get another van though. They just need a petrol vehicle from the last 16 years, which isn’t that much of an ask; and there’s a £110 million scrappage scheme that will pay grants of up to £9.5k for small businesses, sole traders or charities to scrap or replace a non-ULEZ van if they’re based within the 32 boroughs. Individuals can also apply for smaller grants to replace their personal cars.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/scrappage-schemes
When you hear people complaining, I think most of them are just complaining for the sake of it.