Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones criticises the Mayor of London of taking insufficient action against diesel vehicles in London and calls for the Mayor to allow all inner London boroughs to join the Ultra Low Emission Zone if they wish.
Green Assembly Member Baroness Jenny Jones with London Green Shahrar Ali campaigning for cleaner air in London.
Mayor Boris Johnson’s attempts to combat London’s illegal pollution levels, to be introduced as late as 2020, by charging a small number of cars entering a limited area of central London have been criticised by the Green AM who has successfully persuaded the London Assembly to take steps to widen the “ultra low emission zone”
The Mayor of London is proposing that, in addition to the current congestion charge, there should be a levy of £10 on diesel vehicles entering London’s “Ultra Low Emission Zone” (ULEZ) from 2020 onwards. Over a quarter of cars are now diesel, but they account for 60% of NO2 emissions across London.
However, the Mayors plans have been criticised by Greens in the London Assembly, as figures show that the ULEZ only covers 7% of the main road network which is due to be over the NO2 legal limit in 2020.
A motion proposed by Jenny Jones to the London Assembly giving all boroughs the chance to opt in to the Mayor’s 2020 Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was recently passed unanimously. The Assembly will now recommend that the Mayor consults all London boroughs when deciding the reach of the ULEZ, rather than restricting it to the current boundaries of the London Congestion Charge Zone as was previously envisaged.
Although boroughs will not be obliged to ask for inclusion in the zone, it marks a significant milestone for our Councillors outside central London who have been campaigning for their boroughs to be included in the ULEZ.
Jenny commented: “It is one of the biggest scandals of our age that 4,300 people a year in London are dying prematurely as a result of poor air quality.
“The Mayor is right to target diesel vehicles as a major health hazard but we need action on them immediately, not 2020. Also, the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in central London is too small to have any significant impact on the majority of diesel vehicles in London, which is why we need the Mayor to allow all the inner London boroughs to join the scheme if they want to.”