The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced the introduction of a £10 ‘T-Charge’ targeting 10,000 of the oldest, most polluting vehicles operating within the capital. The charge will be brought in on October 23 – the start of autumn half-term.
The T-Charge will walk alongside the Congestion Charge and will apply Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm. The owners of diesel and petrol vehicles manufactured before 2005 that do not meet Euro 4 emissions standards for nitrogen oxide (NO2) and particulates will have to pay.
Sadiq Khan, said: “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems. If we don’t make drastic changes now we won’t be protecting the health of our families in the future.”
He added that he considered the T-Charge a vital step in tackling the dirtiest diesels and said that he planned to introduce the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone as early as 2019.
“I will continue to do everything in my power to help protect the health of Londoners and clean our filthy air. But now is the time for Government to show real leadership and join me by introducing a diesel scrappage fund and bring in the new Clean Air Act we desperately need.”
The system will use a camera-based mechanism for enforcement and will monitor both diesel and petrol vehicles.
Leon Daniels, Transport for London’s (TfL) Managing Director of Surface Transport, said: “London’s air quality crisis is one of the biggest challenges we face and we are working alongside the Mayor to address it. The T-Charge is a crucial part of this work and will discourage drivers of the oldest, most polluting vehicles from driving in central London. To help drivers we have created an online compliance checker, which can be found on the TfL website, that enables people to easily establish whether they will be affected by the charge.”
The measure is however only expected to lead to a small reduction in toxic fumes.
Conservative London Assembly environment spokesman, Shaun Bailey, told the BBC that TfL’s consultation showed the T-Charge would affect just 7 per cent of vehicles entering the Congestion Charge zone.
"Under assessment by his own people, the mayor's flagship air pollution policy is predicted to have only a 'negligible' impact on air quality, reducing poisonous NOx gasses by just 1-3%," Mr Bailey said.
Regardless of my total lack on interestin anything Apple, my take on this has always been ... why would I want to spend £1,000 on a smartphone and...
am chuckling at "seansean" in the comments. his responses didn't stand the test of time....
Went (by bike!) to their site on the east side of Rotherham, yesterday, to pick up a 'click and collect' order. (It saves the delivery charges:...
We all know that the pro bike / race situation is very different than consumer sitautions, so odd that articles are still over-relating the two......
A link to the crowdfunding would be useful
The thing that puts me off a single front ring setup is I ride such a varied type of terrain. I could be on a very flat ride one day but the next...
As an Australian, motorists there view cyclists that don't wear helmets as law-breaking bogans and likely to ride unsafely in traffic, so they do...
I'd always had good results with the Park glueless patches, until I tried using them on holiday in really hot weather. Then they didn't stick at...
As it should be - what a fantatsic outcome.
IMHO there is a huge issue that we seem to allow that argument (nobody got hurt) in some cases for criminal liability...