Couple living on ULEZ border forced to buy two new vehicles

By Kiro Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

A couple have told of their anger on having to pay the £12.50 ULEZ charge every time they turn left out of their driveway.

George and Vera Dowler’s home is positioned right on the low emission zone border in Eltham.

They faced a cash charge any time they drove their older cars past the traffic lights near their home after last’s month’s ULEZ expansion.

It has left to George shelling out “nearly £40,000” on new vehicles – while wife Vera has been forced to park her older vehicle, which does not meet ULEZ standards, at her work’s garage around the corner.

The couple have lived in their South East London house for 32 years, but found themselves right on the edge of the ULEZ boundary when rules changed.

While their house is inside the zone, turning left past the cameras and traffic lights and towards the nearby roundabout was enough to see them face a charge.

George said: “[Sadiq Khan] has cost me nearly £40,000 in motors. I’ve had to buy a car and pay £7,000 for a new van, which is no better than the one we’ve got.

“I’ve got a perfectly good van that can do 5,000 miles a year, yet a van that meets these emissions can do 100,000 miles more. Who’s polluting the air more, me or him?”

Vera called the situation “disgusting” and said she now left her older car around the corner where she works in admin.

It means she can escape the cameras perched on top of the traffic lights, which they say catches older vehicles out right outside their home.

George added: “It’s all about money. [If] people are prepared to still use their old vehicles, the air would be exactly the same, so it’s all about money.

“What is the difference between the air here and the air the other side of the traffic lights?

“Also, I’ve been brought up around lorries and fumes, like thousands of other people. I’m 72 years of age, still fit as a fiddle. Surely it’s not the air, surely it’s the food that people eat. I just don’t get it all.

“I’ve got a perfectly good van that if they want to use it on the other side of that roundabout. There’s another 10 years left in it and they can use it, and I can’t.”

Vera also criticised the reported negotiations London Mayor Khan is in to bring a Formula One track to the capital, saying it undermined his climate credentials, adding: “It’s absolutely crazy.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “We know toxic air pollution in London leads to 4,000 premature deaths a year, stunts the growth of children’s lungs and worsens chronic illnesses, such as asthma.

“The bold action taken by Sadiq since he became Mayor has already led to a 94 per cent reduction in the number of Londoners living in areas that exceed the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels and the gap between the most and least deprived areas for exposure to nitrogen dioxide has narrowed by up to 50 per cent.

“87 per cent of cars seen travelling in the expanded zone already meet the standards and to help more Londoners switch to cleaner vehicles, Sadiq has invested £61 million in scrappage schemes, which have helped replace or retrofit more than 12,000 vehicles since 2019.”

The ULEZ expansion has had a mixed response since its introduction. Earlier this month, motorists elsewhere on the border told the Local Demcracy Reporting Service they were not bothered by the rule changes.