Five councils start legal bid to stop Khan's expansion of ULEZ zone

Five councils launch legal challenge in bid to stop Sadiq Khan’s expansion of hated ULEZ zone to cover the whole of London

• The ULEZ zone is to be expanded to cover the whole of London from August 29
• Councilors from Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Surrey are pushing

A collation of five councils has today launched a legal challenge in a bid to stop Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the hated Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the whole of London.

The boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Surrey County Council have brought legal action following TfL’s announcement in November 2022.

Transport for London announced that it would push on with proposals to expand the scheme on August 29, despite strong opposition from across outer London and beyond including concerns over how it is being delivered.

Motorists are expected to face a £12.50 daily fee for vehicles if they cross the boundary, which is currently within London’s north and south-circular orbital roads. 

However, once the changes are made, the expansion of the zone would cover the whole of London.

A collation of five councils has launched a legal challenge in a bid to stop Sadiq Khan’s (pictured) expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to cover the whole of London

Transport for London announced that it would push on with proposals to expand the scheme on August 29

The local authorities have openly opposed the expansion, as they believe it will hardly improve air quality and would add more costs for residents already struggling amid the cost of living crisis.

The councils are challenging the expansion in the High Court on five grounds, claiming that TfL has demonstrated a failure to comply with relevant statutory requirements. 

They have also challenged the expansion on the grounds of an unlawful failure to consider expected compliance rates in outer London and the negligence to carry out any cost-benefit analysis. 

Additionally, the councils argued that the proposed scrappage scheme was not consulted upon – they claim that the details of the scrappage scheme costing £110 million only become available following his decision and were not subject to prior consultation.

The group concluded, noting that an inadequate consultation and/or apparent predetermination arose from the conduct of the consultation.

Councilor Baroness O’Neill of Bexley OBE, Leader of the London Borough of Bexley, said: ‘We have been clear from the start that we believe air quality is important but that ULEZ is the wrong solution. 

‘We believe he should give the monies that he has allocated to ULEZ to the boroughs who actually understand outer London and the transport connectivity problems our residents face to come up with innovative solutions that will deliver better, more practical results.

‘We are also very concerned about the mental wellbeing of our residents who we know are already anxious about the installation of ULEZ and the very real prospect that they won’t be able to use their cars to get to work, visit relatives and friends, shop or attend health appointments.’

The local authorities have openly opposed the expansion, as they believe it will hardly improve air quality and would add more costs for residents

Motorists are expected to face a £12.50 daily fee for vehicles if they cross the boundary, which is currently within London’s north and south-circular orbital roads

Leader of Hillingdon Council, Ian Edwards also said: ‘We believe Sadiq Khan’s decision to impose this scheme on outer London boroughs is unlawful – his spending nearly £260 million of public money without any cost benefit analysis. 

‘The predominant effect of ULEZ expansion will be to financially cripple already struggling households, further isolate the elderly and harm our local economy with negligible or no improvement to air quality.’

READ MORE: Fury at ‘out of touch’ Sadiq Khan over war on drivers 

Leader of Surrey County Council Tim Oliver added: ‘We are dismayed at the lack of discussion or consideration given to these proposals by the Mayor of London.

‘It’s disappointing that we, along with other local authorities, have to resort to legal proceedings to try and bring the Mayor of London to the table, but we have no choice but to do so.’

On Wednesday, Boris Johnson posted a video on Twitter using Mr Khan of expanding the scheme to ‘rake in money’ from motorists.

In the video, Mr Johnson urged people to stop Mr Khan’s ‘mad expansion plan’, which he labelled a ‘lefty tax on people’s lives and livelihoods’.

He added: ‘You do not need an outer London emission zone – it’s inner London that has the emission problem.

‘You don’t need an ultra-low emission zone for the whole of London in the way Sadiq Khan is imposing one because by 2030 all new cars in this country are going to be much cleaner and greener anyway.

In the video, Mr Johnson urged people to stop Mr Khan’s ‘mad expansion plan’

‘There’s only one reason why he’s doing it and that’s because he has bankrupted TfL by his mismanagement of the finances of London, and he wants to rake in money from motorists in Outer London and beyond in a way that is completely unreasonable and unnecessary for air quality.

READ MORE: Fury at ‘out of touch’ Sadiq Khan over war on drivers 

‘So stop Khan’s mad ULEZ expansion plan, fight the outer London ULEZ, fight his plans to take money off hard-pressed motorists at a very, very difficult time, and stop this mad lefty tax on people’s lives and livelihoods.’

Mr Khan said: ‘We’ll take no lectures from a former prime minister, the former mayor, who ignored the science and ignored the facts.’

Earlier, this month, the capital’s mayor wrote to the leaders of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon councils describing their grounds for a potential legal challenge to the measure as ‘wholly without merit and misconceived’.

Labour mayor Mr Khan dismissed opposition from local authorities as a ‘vocal minority’ on Thursday, and spoke of wanting to be on the ‘right side of history’.

Asked what he made of some Labour MPs also criticising the plan, Mr Khan said: ‘Evidence that this policy is not about party politics is the fact that it’s got some people are opposing it from the Labour Party as well as the Conservative Party.

‘It’s really important to recognise that actually, the evidence is unequivocal.’

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