LONDON A vociferous crowd gathered outside Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s official residence, showed today that it is very angry.
Ordinary people gathered in the streets of the heart of British power, drumming and shouting in opposition to the extension of London’s ULEZ, or ultra-low emission zone, to the whole of Greater London.
It infuriates them that cars driving into the area have to pay an emission fee of 12.50 pounds, or about 15 euros, per day.
– It is wrong that people have to pay for their movement in order to take care of their own affairs. The cost-of-living crisis is already increasing poverty and businesses are suffering, says the twenty-something Lorianne.
He is holding a poster demanding the cancellation of the emission fee.
Lorianne’s uncle Jamie Peter is in good shape. He says that the Labor Party, during its years in government, urged people to get a diesel car. Now his 13-year-old car does not meet emission limits. The IT consultant now has to pay 15 euros every time he goes to visit a client on the outskirts of London, where the emission zone has expanded.
The Mayor of London by Sadiq Khan efforts to clean up London’s polluted air are angering many residents struggling with a cost-of-living crisis. The fiercest have broken the cameras monitoring the emission zone.
At the corner of Downing Street, hundreds of protesters chanted and carried signs demanding the mayor’s resignation. Trucks and motorbikes drove along Halintokatu in protest, spewing exhaust gases that London wants to curb with the help of an emission zone.
Many people don’t think London’s air is polluted
Jamie Peter says that emission fees do not clean the air.
– It’s a tax the mayor wants to use to fix the big city’s miserable economy, he claims.
Also a taxi driver Prabdeep Singh believes so.
– This is just an excuse to encourage ordinary people’s money.
Singh went on a hunger strike for a week in his neighborhood to protest. It did not help. He believes that voting will help. We want to make this an election theme for all upcoming elections.
ULEZ has got people moving. Protesters dressed in black clothes to hide their faces have climbed poles at night to break the cameras monitoring the emission zone.
The British Royal Automobile Club estimates that the emission fee in the ULEZ zone in London applies to approximately 700,000 cars: gasoline cars registered before 2005 and diesel cars registered before 2015.
Only one-tenth of all vehicles in the London area have cars that violate emission standards. But according to the protesters, the fee specifically targets the poorest people living on the outskirts of London, who need a car because of the distances, but cannot afford to buy a new one.
Adding to the irritation is the fact that the area is located in busy places such as Wembley Stadium and Europe’s largest international airport Heathrow, where taxi drivers, for example, drive to.
It doesn’t even help that the mayor has promised around 2,300 euros to everyone who scraps their old car and gets a new one.
– My car is in perfect condition. It’s worth more than what I’d get for scrapping it. The idea behind this emission zone is air quality. Here on the outskirts of London, the air is clean, says Jamie Peter.
The City of London supports the scrapping fee with 186 million euros. Mayor Sadiq Khan extended the subsidy to all cars that break emission limits as the furore appeared to jeopardize the popularity of Khan’s Labor Party.
– This was a difficult, but vital and right decision, assured Sadiq Khan today on BBC radio’s Today program.
He said that the ULEZ charge, which has been in effect for two years in the inner London area, has reduced emissions by up to half.
Many Conservative-led city councils in Greater London oppose the expansion.
– We have a lot of elderly people. Many people have a car that they use once or twice a week for visits to the hospital or for essential shopping. Now they have to pay for it, says the Bromley district councilor who came to the protest Simon Fawthrop.
The situation is difficult for Khan. Emission fees are becoming an election theme in the parliamentary elections expected for next year. But Khan is committed to cleaning London’s polluted air to the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO) by 2030.
London exhaust kills thousands
Imperial College University estimates that air pollution caused 4,000 premature deaths in London in 2019. Nitrogen dioxide from the exhaust gas of diesel cars and small particles of air pollution are particularly dangerous.
The Mayor’s website says that emissions reductions add up to half a year to the life expectancy of a child born in London.
Emission zones divide people. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Redfield and Wilton strategies company, almost half of the interviewed Londoners were in favor of expanding the emission zone, but a third were against it.
The opposition is greatest specifically on the outer edge of London.
According to the London Chamber of Commerce, companies are concerned about the costs of their employees, as many live in London’s suburbs.
Emissions become an election controversy
The emission zone has become a political controversy. The ruling conservative party, which has lost its popularity, has noticed that citizens who are angry about air pollution and climate goals are a large group of voters.
In the recent by-elections, the Labor Party, which is in opposition, lost an MP seat in the suburbs of London precisely because of the emission zone dispute. The Labor Party competed against the former prime minister From Boris Johnson for a vacant seat in Uxbridge, but lost it when voters protested the expansion of the emissions zone in their area. The Mayor of London represents the Labor Party.
The Conservative Party is also withdrawing from its own climate promises. Britain has committed to stop selling new petrol and diesel cars at the turn of the decade.
Now the ministers are warning that the increase in the use of electric cars can endanger the country’s security, because most of the electric cars come from China and the country can spy using the cars. Prime minister Rishi Sunak has also promised to grant one hundred new oil and gas drilling permits in the North Sea off Scotland.
Many protesters are vowing to campaign in the next London mayoral election to get Khan out of office and the Conservatives to replace him.
Ann Walker says that ULEZ influences Takuu’s voting decision.
– It’s hard. Not even that conservative prime minister has helped us with this problem. Who are you voting for here? It’s hard, Walker smiles and shrugs.