Sadiq Khan hails 'landmark' ULEZ expansion
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has hailed a "landmark day" which saw the expansion of ULEZ to the Greater London borough, while insisting road pricing was "not on [his] agenda". Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Today is a landmark day for our city because after today, 5 million more Londoners will
00:06 be breathing clean air. I've been quite clear from the outset, the decision to expand the
00:11 U-Less was a difficult one, but it's a vital one, it's the right thing to do. The RAC figure
00:15 relies upon those cars and vehicles registered in London. Now for good reasons, if you're
00:20 headquartered in London, your vehicles may be outside of London, but the vehicles are
00:25 registered in London. The data I've set in relation to 9 out of 10 cars seen driving
00:30 out of London are based on an average day using the huge amount of cameras that we have.
00:35 That's the more accurate figure up to date. What I say to those drivers whose councils
00:41 have wasted more than a million pounds, you know, taking me to court unsuccessfully, money
00:47 that's gone to court fees and lawyers fees that could have been spent in a scrappage
00:51 parking, work with me to lobby the government and say, listen, you gave financial support
00:56 to those in Birmingham, Bristol, Bath and those living just outside. If it's good enough
01:00 for them, why isn't it good enough for London and the South East? I'm quite clear in relation
01:04 to as long as I'm Mayor, no road pricing. It's not on the table, it's not on my agenda.
01:11 It's no secret though, the government for some time, tearful and transpathologised across
01:16 the country have been looking into so-called smart, straightforward road pricing. In fact,
01:22 Boris Johnson when he was Mayor had it in his transport strategy. Richie Sunak when
01:27 he was Chancellor asked the Treasury officials to look into this. But as long as I'm Mayor,
01:32 it won't happen. There are other things we can and will be doing to address the twin
01:36 challenges of air pollution and the climate emergency.