Harlow MP intensifies campaign to scrap ULEZ expansion plan
Business / Thu 26th Jan 2023 am31 08:02am
ROBERT Halfon, Member of Parliament for Harlow and the villages, is calling on local residents to sign the petition, demanding that the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, scrap’s his plans to impose a discriminatory tax on Harlow drivers every time they cross the London borders.
Under new plans announced by the Mayor of London in December, the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which currently covers the area inside of the North and South Circular routes, will be expanded to cover the whole of the Greater London Area. This will cost Harlow drivers commuting to London £12.50 per day, with an additional Congestion Charge applied in Central London areas.
After a year of higher than ever before petrol prices and a cost of living crisis fuelled by the war in Ukraine, hard working Harlow people are facing more uncertainty due to the Mayor of London’s plan to increase commuting costs at a time when every penny counts.
Local MP, Robert Halfon is calling on all local residents to sign his petition and join the campaign to ensure Sadiq Khan scraps his plans to impose this unfair London borders tax on Harlow motorists. You can sign the petition online here: action.conservatives.com/stop-drivers-tax/
Commenting on the campaign, Mr Halfon said, “Hard working Harlow people do not deserve to face this additional charge, just to go to work. Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ expansion plans will jeopardise the livelihoods of Harlow white van drivers, taxi drivers and commuters who travel to London each day.
“I am disappointed to hear recent reports that the Mayor of London has overlooked responses to his recent consultation, ignoring the views of hardworking people. I am calling on the Mayor to listen to the overwhelming majority of people who simply cannot afford to pay this arbitrary tax and scrap his plans to extend the ULEZ.
“It is also sad to see that this plan is supported by the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, who says “it is right” to charge Harlow motorists an extra £12.50 every single day to drive to work.
“I have always campaigned to cut the cost of living for motorists which has resulted in the Government freezing fuel duty for 11 consecutive years – and – cutting it this year. We must continue to support Harlow’s white van men and women and the Labour Mayor of London needs to scrap this plan.”
James Leppard
2023-01-26 08:37:35
This is nothing more than another money grabbing stealth tax by the incompetent London Mayor. It will hit emergency workers and teachers, etc who live outside London but work in the outer boroughs.
Kevin
2023-01-26 09:36:13
Totally agree James, the government keep finding way's of screwing money out of us, I personally cannot afford to work within the boundaries of the M25 and when he brings this in the businesses in Cruse Hill, Chingford and Enfield lock will all suffer.
Kim Oconnor
2023-01-26 09:42:59
Just another means to make money.
Neil Warner-Baker
2023-01-26 09:53:33
This scenario takes me back to the campaign to expose the danger of Lead in Petrol. But ironically in reverse. At the time the Campaigners were branded as Loonies.They were scoffed at and we were told by the talking heads of the establishment that it would be far to expensive and would cripple the automotive industry to remove lead from petrol. 1000's of lives have since been saved and Millions of lives improved, furthermore it significantly reduced the burden on the NHS in treating respiratory desease... We nead to recognise that we need to significantly reduce automobile usage, congestion, the commitment to reduce global warming due to additional Carbons and the often forgotten dangers of aspestos. ( Clutch and brake liners contain a significant proportion of Aspestos and many tons of the dust is spread during their use). Our local politicians are so out of touch, Major cities Like London and Cambridge are desperately trying to reduce commuter traffic whilst the local powers that be, fly in their face by promoting Harlow as a commuter town..Junction 7a..? Eastern/ Western Stort crossing..??
Monica
2023-01-26 10:21:09
Another example of poor decisions compounding the hardship experienced by people. A classic example of money making to profit government coffers.
Dave
2023-01-26 10:30:39
We have the highest taxes in 70 years, stealth taxes being applied by freezing tax thresholds, pension ages increasing, infrastructure crumbling, roads falling apart - which affects all Harlow residents. Talk about playing politics if this was a conservative mayor Halfon would be applauding the decision to increase the taxes as he has with this government.
Mr Grumpy
2023-01-26 12:37:59
I am curious to learn what kind of vehicle Mr Khan has when he is not (if he ever does) using public transport.
Danny Long
2023-01-26 13:33:09
Well done Robert. If the London mayor is going to extend the rules charge to the M25 then a the residents who live in the home counties should have a say in the next London mayor elections because his is involving us in his policies. Plus the county council's of the home counties should start charging anyone who lives in any of the London boroughs to come Into the town and cities of them home counties.The majority of residents who live in the home countries are Londoners going back to the 1940s,50s 60s, 70s and 80s.
Kevin
2023-01-26 13:38:00
Further to the various strikes that are due over the next two months, it appears an important aspect of the additional cost of living crisis has been overlooked. We have been reviewing the ULEZ cost to consumers who live or commute into the proposed expanded ULEZ from August 2023. There appears the be no available information to the actual real world analysis cost to consumers. We have decided to look into this and our results are very concerning. Our Investigations thus far as follows: The figures are based on a 5 day commute into or within the ULEZ 1/ A commuter on a gross salary of £20,000 will need a revised gross salary of £24,411. To enable them to pay for the daily ULEZ charge of £12.50 from net earnings This a gross increase in salary of 22%.* 2/ A commuter on a gross salary of £25,000 will need a revised gross salary of £29,411 To enable them to pay for the daily ULEZ charge of £12.50 from net earnings This a gross increase in salary of 17.6%.* 3/ A commuter on a gross salary of £30,000 will need a revised gross salary of £34,411 To enable them to pay for the daily ULEZ charge of £12.50 from net earnings This a gross increase in salary of 14.7%.* 4/ A commuter on a gross salary of £40,000 will need a revised gross salary of £44,411 To enable them to pay for the daily ULEZ charge of £12.50 from net earnings This a gross increase in salary of 11%.* * The precise amount is subject to the commuters financial circumstances (2022/2023) ** Based on a 5 day commute into or within the ULEZ for 48 weeks Revision 2- 26/01/2023 E&OE As can be seen by the figures the lower income groups are particularly discriminated against in Greater London.
JD
2023-01-26 15:05:21
I can't help but think this is just a slight-of-hand distraction. The ULEZ expansion has been known about for months, and only now RH is campaigning to scrap it. Could this be a distraction from all the potholes in Harlow, the tax problems of the Conservative Party chairman, Boris Johnson's 'partygate' legal bill costing the taxpayer more than £200,000, or any of the many, many cock-ups committed by the Tories. The only target he can find is an attempt to improve the air quality for many more people. Absolutely not about 'bashing' a favourite target of right-wing nutters, Sadiq Khan. I'm sure it is just a coincidence that he didn't mention the scrappage scheme that is open for applications from 30th Jan. Or any of the exemptions, grace periods or discounts that are available.
novoman
2023-01-26 16:45:30
One cannot help but feel ULEZ expansion is the Mayor's response to the cuts by the government for funding London Transport buses & tubes. In essence caused by the government. Air pollution from exhausts is a tremendous problem but as mentioned by Neil particles from brake linings and microplastic pollution from tyres are also significant problems and EVs produce greater levels of such pollution being tons heavier than petrol vehicles. Also EVs rely on batteries that rely on highly polluting mining and inefficient recycling of lithium. The answer is to vastly improve public transport so it's not worth driving into London as a commuter and that'll not only eliminate pollution it will free up the roads for essential traders.
Theman
2023-01-26 16:57:58
I put in an information request about the pollution levels over this. The reply I received stated that they only have 3 locations of live readings and the rest was modelled by computers, which means guess work as computer modelling is not that accurate.. Now the funny thing is that you can get live polution(pm2.5) readings all over london on Google. The reason I made the request was because the gov website stated that the pm2.5 reading at my location is 50 parts per million, which is considered higher than what is preferred, while I have a calibrated pm2.5 meter that has never read higher than 10 outside. Indoors is a different story. If we cook readings will go up to 2-300 and if the tumble dryer is on readings go over 400. Which suggest we are at more risk from the pollution caused by our activities in the home than those outdoors. As an aside pm2.5 levels in The Sahara desert are over 200 and there are very few people there, it is caused by the sand in the air, so this means that within readings taken there background levels to take into account. As for this article above I would say that while I signed the petition, it’s a bit late in the day. Maybe doing this earlier may have been more productive.
Luke Burton
2023-01-27 08:58:42
If this is about air pollution, then I'd rather the Mayor outright ban non-compliant cars from entering, rather than imposing a flat charge on people. It's like a parking ticket for parking on a double yellow - the rich just see it as the cost of parking and nothing more.
Kim Oconnor
2023-01-27 10:39:00
We now have London s double decker buses, because emissions with them were to high. So we got them, so it's OK for us to have them. You couldn't make it up.
David Forman
2023-01-27 21:20:59
Sadiq Khan is on the right-wing of the Labour Party and a Tony Blair fan. So rather strange that hard-left Momentum member/supporter cllr Jodi Dunne is supporting a Blairite take money out of the pockets of hard pressed workers.
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