The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has confirmed the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will expand to cover almost all of the area within the Greater London boundary.
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has confirmed the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will expand to cover almost all of the area within the Greater London boundary on 29 August as planned, following the very significant High Court ruling that the process carried out on the proposal to expand the ULEZ, including the public consultation, was thorough and the decision was completely legally sound.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "This landmark decision is good news as it means we can proceed with cleaning up the air in outer London on 29 August."
The ULEZ is a highly targeted scheme aimed at taking the most polluting vehicles off the roads. Nine out of ten cars seen driving regularly in outer London on an average day are already ULEZ compliant and will not pay a penny when the zone expands, while still benefitting from cleaner air.
The four London boroughs (Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon) and Surrey County Council had been given permission to argue three grounds of challenge against the Mayor and TfL out of five grounds advanced in their original claim.
The other two grounds had previously been rejected outright by the High Court.
The Court ruled in favour of the Mayor on all three legal grounds heard in the case saying “The councils’ challenge fails on all three grounds and is dismissedâ€.
The judge (Mr Justice Swift) found that the legal basis on which the Mayor made the decision to expand the ULEZ was sound, and in line with previous decisions on the ULEZ and the Congestion Charge, and that the ULEZ could legally apply to all roads within the expanded zone.
The judge also found that the consultation materials provided all the information people needed about the numbers affected to make informed responses to the proposals.
Finally, the judge found that there was no obligation on the Mayor to mitigate the impacts of the scheme with a vehicle scrappage scheme or to compensate for the impacts of the ULEZ expansion, and his decision nevertheless to provide £110 million for scrappage support for people, businesses and charities within the London boundary was sound, and properly explained in both the consultation materials and the material that informed the Mayor's own decision.
It is estimated that more than £1million of the councils’ public money will have been spent on this court case.
The Mayor has been publicly critical of the five councils who brought this challenge, choosing to waste public money fighting a clear air policy. £1million is the equivalent of more than 350,000 free school meals for children in the capital.
Around 4,000 Londoners die each year prematurely due to causes linked to air pollution, with the greatest number of premature deaths in outer London - and every outer London borough exceeds the WHO's recommended guidelines for NO2 and PM2.5 pollution.
Mayoral policies, such as the central London ULEZ, have helped reduce the number of children admitted to hospital with asthma and other respiratory diseases attributable to air pollution by 30%.
Over 90% of the cars seen driving regularly in outer London on an average day are ULEZ-compliant, but for the small proportion of non-compliant vehicles the Mayor has introduced a £110million scrappage scheme to help low-income and disabled Londoners and small businesses.
From Monday 31 July the scheme expands further so that every family in receipt of child benefit in London (more than 870,000 people) and every small business is eligible for thousands of pounds in financial support if they have a non-compliant vehicle.
As of the end of June 2023 there was still £68million available from the Mayor's scrappage fund to support Londoners. ■