Sadiq Khan warns Tory boroughs in opposition to difficult Ulez enlargement

The Mayor claimed makes an attempt to hunt a judicial evaluation of his resolution to broaden the Ulez to the Higher London boundary had been “wholly with out advantage” and “misconceived”.

Hillingdon, Harrow, Bexley and Bromley councils have collectively despatched a “pre motion” letter to Transport for London, threatening courtroom motion if Mr Khan presses forward with the enlargement on August 29.

About 200,000 extra drivers a day are anticipated to should pay the £12.50 emissions-based levy when it expands from the interior boundaries of the North and South Round roads.

Harrow has put aside a preventing fund of as much as £400,000 and says it’s prepared to go forward even when the opposite boroughs drop out.

However Mr Khan on Monday opened a brand new entrance within the battle to broaden the Ulez by writing to the leaders of the 4 councils to warn: “I anticipate any authorized problem will likely be unsuccessful.”

He urged the council leaders to “do the fitting factor” by searching for to scale back the well being impacts of poisonous air reasonably than “losing an enormous quantity of your valuable native authority budgets and cash raised via your residents paying council tax”.

He wrote: “As a substitute of pursuing an costly authorized problem funded by native residents, I’d hope you’d work with me to assist clear up the soiled air that’s blighting our metropolis and the lives of these we symbolize.”

However, Mr Khan made no point out of the price of dwelling disaster, which has led to many boroughs – together with Labour-run councils similar to Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham – to lift considerations in regards to the timing of the enlargement and the quantity of assist obtainable for Londoners to improve their automobiles.

The mayor stated it was “merely not true” that Ulez, which is costing virtually £160m to introduce, was a money-making enterprise.

It’s anticipated to generate as much as £300m in levies and fines in its first yr however for the revenue to fall to “nominal” ranges by 2027 as drivers swap automobiles to keep away from having to pay.

However Harrow chief Paul Osborn stated he feared TfL would tighten the principles in later years to extend the variety of automobiles that had been non-compliant and needed to pay.

He informed the BBC: “In case your car is compliant right this moment, it doesn’t essentially imply it will be compliant in two years, three years.

“[Expanding the zone] when inflation is at 10 per cent, when power payments are going up, when gas payments are going up, when folks’s meals costs are going up, it’s not the fitting time to do it – even when it was the fitting resolution, which I don’t actually assume it’s.”

Mr Khan is offering an extra £110m for a scrappage scheme for low-income Londoners, charities and small companies – however might have to extend the quantity to get his annual funds accredited later this month by the London Meeting.

The 4 boroughs imagine they’ve 4 grounds on which to problem the legality of the Ulez resolution – together with the ban on drivers dwelling within the “buffer zone” simply exterior London to use for scrappage funds.

Mr Khan informed the 4 leaders that lots of of their residents had been dying prematurely every year due to air air pollution, which he known as an “invisible killer”.

He wrote: “Analysis by Imperial School London reveals that Bromley has the best untimely deaths linked to air air pollution of all London boroughs – with an estimated 204 lives misplaced in 2019. In Bexley, it’s 162 lives misplaced, in Harrow 118 lives misplaced, and in Hillingdon 155 individuals are estimated to have misplaced their lives due to situations linked to air air pollution.

“Each Londoner has a proper to breathe clear air and all of us share an ethical and authorized obligation to realize authorized compliance with air air pollution limits as shortly as attainable.”

Harrow, Hillingdon, Bexley and Bromley councils have been approached for remark.