London: Hundreds protest against climate mandates
Hundreds of Londoners Saturday gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest climate restrictions for drivers which are slated to expand this month.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has instituted Ultra-Low Emission Zones (ULEZ), areas in London only accessible to low-emission vehicles. Cars that do not meet the city’s environmental standards are charged £12.50 ($16.00) for entering the ULEZ. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras positioned around the zones read license plates and check them against the vehicles’ make and model in real time. If a vehicle does not meet the environmental threshold, the fine is levied against the car owner. Failure to pay can lead to fines as high as £258 ($331).
Nearly half of London’s residents — over four million people — now live in ULEZs, which cover the North and South Circular Roads. By the end of this month, the ULEZ will expand to encompass all London boroughs. Over 300 ULEZ cameras have been installed so far, and Mayor Khan plans to install 2,750 more around outer London.
On Saturday, drivers demanded Khan’s resignation as they demonstrated in the wet weather, holding signs reading “Stop the toxic air lie” and “Fcuk Khan, get Khan out”. One protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask held a sign which read “ULEZ will bet stopped by your actions, not your opinions” and one wrote a slogan on his jeep: “Scrap Khan, not our cars. No to ULEZ.”
Londoners have not been responding well to the climate mandates. At least 31 incidents of vandalism of ULEZ cameras have been reported in proposed expansion zones since March 21st, and at least 12 in current zones.
“This is our country and we’re taking it back,” said one man last month who posted a video showing dozens of cameras he had removed.
London drivers are also bucking hundreds of thousands of pounds in ULEZ fines in what is being described as a “revolt” against Khan’s climate mandates. In the last fiscal year alone, £255,545,388 ($325 million) in climate penalties remained outstanding. Between 2021 and 2022, Transport for London (TfL) failed to collect £120,123,660 ($153 million). Only about £73 million ($93 million) in penalties were collected.
“The phenomenal rise in the last two or three years in the amounts wilfully not paid, and the sheer numbers of drivers who must have made a conscious decision to no longer be ripped off by Sadiq Khan, makes any rational person realise that these numbers show a large number of drivers revolting on the Ulez scheme and refusing to pay,” said MP Karl McCartney.
McCartney called the penalties “an unjust tax” and predicted Khan “will pay the price at the ballot box.”
Indeed, politicians in the UK’s Left-wing Labour Party want to “take another look” at the ULEZ mandate, which they blame for a recent election loss for the party.
Labour candidates narrowly lost to Right-leaning Tory Party members in two special elections last month despite expectations of a decisive Labour victory. Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where the elections were held, are boroughs in Outer London where car dependency is high.
