Half a million drivers in Birmingham and London look likely to be priced out of city driving as a new report details clean-air zone charges in eco-friendly cities, as the battle for clean-air vs affordable motoring heats up.
London’s Ulta Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is set to expand in October, with a daily charge of £12.50, and Birmingham drivers will be stung with a new £8 daily charge for driving a non-compliant vehicle into the city centre.
London's ULEZ operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, except Christmas Day, within the same area of central London as the Congestion Charge.
Most vehicles, including cars and vans, need to meet the ULEZ emissions standards or their drivers must pay a daily charge to drive within the zone, with the AA estimating that London's residents own between 250,000 and 300,000 ULEZ non-compliant cars.
Furthermore, another 100,000 vehicles liable for the ULEZ charge enter the city from outside the expanded designated zone each day, with a comparable amount of non-compliant vehicles owned by Birmingham residents.
Air pollution in London was recently ruled to have been a probable factor in the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-year-old girl who suffered from severe asthma and who lived 30 metres of London's congested South Circular road. Kissi-Debrah died after suffering an acute asthma attack in February 2013.
Philip Barlow, the inner south London coroner, said that “(her death) in February 2013 was caused by acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure.”
“Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution. The whole of Ella’s life was lived in close proximity to highly polluting roads. I have no difficulty in concluding that her personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide and PM was very high,” he added.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said with regards to the coroner's inquest last year: “Today (Dec 16) must be a turning point so that other families do not have to suffer the same heartbreak as Ella’s family. Toxic air pollution is a public health crisis, especially for our children, and the inquest underlined yet again the importance of pushing ahead with bold policies such as expanding the ultra-low emission zone to inner London.”
Yet, the AA report states that there are concerns for the hundreds of thousands of motorists who rely on their cars and cannot afford the new clean-air charges, and thus find themselves trapped living inside eco-friendly cities and their constantly evolving clean-air schemes.
Furthermore, many drivers, especially in light of the drastic effects from the pandemic with regards to financial stability and lack of employment, have no option at all to upgrade their ULEZ non-compliant vehicle, nor can they switch to purely electric due to a lack of EV infrastructure availability.
Edmund King, AA president, said: “Later this year, millions of drivers in London will find themselves on the wrong side of the road when the ULEZ scheme is expanded. There is a very real risk that many people who rely on their car for essential journeys will be priced off the road.
With the whole country back in lockdown, this is likely to have an even bigger impact than previously thought as more people will be trying to avoid public transport by using private cars,” King added.
Keyword: AA estimates half a million drivers will be priced out of city driving in 2021 thanks to clean air zone charges