‘Landmark’ High Court win for London Mayor means ULEZ expansion will go ahead

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today confirmed the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will expand to cover almost all of the area within the Greater London boundary on August 29 as planned

This follows the “very significant” High Court ruling that the process carried out on the proposal to expand the ULEZ, including the public consultation, was thorough and the decision was completely legally sound.

The Mayor welcomed today’s important judgement, which allows him to press on with the expansion and will bring approximately five million more Londoners into the zone, on top of the four million already benefiting from cleaner air who live in the existing zone.

The ULEZ is a highly targeted scheme aimed at taking the most polluting vehicles off the roads. Nine out of 10 cars seen driving regularly in outer London on an average day are already ULEZ compliant and will not pay a penny when the zone expands, while still benefiting from cleaner air.

The four London boroughs (Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon) and Surrey County Council had been given permission to argue three grounds of challenge against the Mayor and TfL out of five grounds advanced in their original claim. The other two grounds had previously been rejected outright by the High Court.

The Court ruled in favour of the Mayor on all three legal grounds heard in the case saying “The councils’ challenge fails on all three grounds and is dismissed”.

The judge (Mr Justice Swift) found that the legal basis on which the Mayor made the decision to expand the ULEZ was sound, and in line with previous decisions on the ULEZ and the Congestion Charge, and that the ULEZ could legally apply to all roads within the expanded zone.

Finally, the judge found that there was no obligation on the Mayor to mitigate the impacts of the scheme with a vehicle scrappage scheme or to compensate for the impacts of the ULEZ expansion, and his decision nevertheless to provide £110m for scrappage support for people, businesses and charities within the London boundary was sound.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, commented: “This landmark decision is good news as it means we can proceed with cleaning up the air in outer London on August 29. The decision to expand the ULEZ was very difficult and not something I took lightly and I continue to do everything possible to address any concerns Londoners may have.

“The ULEZ has already reduced toxic nitrogen dioxide air pollution by nearly half in central London and a fifth in inner London. The coming expansion will see five million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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