Sadiq Khan's ULEZ plans could be blocked by a legal challenge
Sadiq Khan’s plans for London cars crackdown could be blocked by a legal challenge after it was revealed his officials secretly ordered hundreds of enforcement cameras before public voted against ULEZ
- Mr Khan was accused of a ‘sham consultation’ and ignoring ULEZ opposition
- Owners of non-compliant vehicles are charged £12.50 a day to drive in the zone
- Read more: Sadiq Khan blames Boris Johnson for Ulez extension
London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s cars crackdown could be blocked by a legal challenge after it emerged his officials secretly ordered hundreds of enforcement cameras before the public voted to reject the project.
Mr Khan was accused of a ‘sham consultation’ and ignoring huge opposition to expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).
Owners of non-compliant vehicles are charged £12.50 a day to drive in the clean air zone, which currently includes all areas within the North and South Circular roads.
Mr Khan plans to expand this to Greater London this year to encompass five million more people, some 200,000 of them owning non-compliant vehicles. They are generally pre-2005 petrol cars and pre- September 2015 diesel vehicles.
Transport for London (TfL) asked the public if they backed the plan in May 2022 during a ten-week consultation. Then in November, Labour’s Mr Khan said he was pressing ahead with the scheme – despite 59 per cent opposing it.
Now documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal how TfL began ordering hundreds of number-plate-reading cameras required for the scheme in April 2022 – a month before the public had been asked to have their say. This paper understands the order was worth up to £15 million.
Mr Khan was accused of a ‘sham consultation’ and ignoring huge opposition to expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone
Shaun Bailey, a former Tory London mayoral candidate, said: ‘It is categoric proof the Mayor pre-judged the outcome of the consultation. He had no intention of listening to Londoners.’ Mr Khan was accused earlier this year of manipulating the consultation after it emerged more than 5,200 votes from the FairFuelUK motoring campaign had been discounted.
Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, said: ‘We now learn he purchased millions of pounds of vehicle registration cameras before the consultation even started. It’s clear with this action alone, the Mayor had no genuine intention to adhere to the result of the consultation process. Shamefully, he has ridden roughshod over majority opinion.’
Tory boroughs Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon, plus Surrey County Council, have asked the High Court to block the Ulez plan.
TfL sources do not believe details about when the cameras were ordered could be included in the councils’ case – but they could form the basis of a new legal challenge.
Mr Bailey said: ‘Londoners would be stunned if there wasn’t a judicial review of the project now.’
TfL expects the total cost of Ulez expansion to be up to £140 million.
TfL said: ‘As components had long lead times and with our duty to achieve value for money, we placed cancellable orders last April after the Mayor announced there would be a consultation on Ulez.
‘This did not predetermine the Mayor’s decision on the Ulez expansion as the orders would have been cancelled or the equipment used for other projects or sold on to other organisations.’
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