London residents continue removing government ‘climate cameras’
Another London resident last week was spotted removing the city’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone surveillance cameras, continuing a trend that has seen at least 43 such cameras damaged or removed.
Ultra-Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) are 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 August 29th of this year, the ULEZ will expand to encompass all London boroughs. Over 300 ULEZ cameras have been installed so far, and Mayor Sadiq Khan plans to install 2,750 more around outer London.
The ANPR cameras, according to Transport for London (TfL), also monitor traffic and serve as security cameras for law enforcement to “prevent and detect crime”.
But Londoners are not responding well to the climate mandates, it seems. 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 ($324,462,146) in climate penalties remained outstanding. Between 2021 and 2022, Transport for London (TfL) failed to collect £120,123,660 ($152,519,209). Only about £73 million ($92,687,000) 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”.
