ULEZ: Labour MPs seek support for non-Londoners

Labour MPs near London are asking the government to provide financial help for people in their areas to scrap vehicles that are not ULEZ-compliant.

It comes a day after five Conservative-run councils were granted a High Court hearing into the expansion plans.

One of the grounds for the hearing is that the scrappage scheme is only open to people living in London.

Half a dozen Labour MPs, led by Slough's Tan Singh Dhesi, have written to the transport secretary.

They are demanding the government provides scrappage payments for their constituents.

"Our residents live close to London and often travel to the capital to work, shop, see a show, eat out and visit friends and family and for many other reasons," says their letter.

"We ask you to provide our areas, which border or are close to the capital, access to a scrappage fund so our constituents can replace their older polluting vehicles with greener ones."

Liberal Democrat analysis of DVLA data suggests more than one and a half million motorists in the Home Counties have vehicles which don't comply with ULEZ standards.

Sadiq Khan's proposed scrappage scheme is to help disabled Londoners, Londoners on benefits and small businesses replace their vehicles or use alternative transport modes.

More than £100m has been made available - with a maximum of £2,000 on offer for scrapping a car and £5,000 for a van or minibus.

When the ULEZ was extended from central to inner London in 2021, a £60m fund was used to take 15,000 vehicles - either pre-2016 diesel or pre-2006 petrol models - off the road.

Surrey County Council was one of the five Tory-run councils that joined the action seeking judicial review, alleging that the mayor of London and Transport for London had failed to consider its residents.

Council leader Tim Oliver welcomed the action progressing to a High Court hearing.

He told the BBC: "The impact on Surrey's residents and businesses has been ignored by the mayor and it's frankly disgraceful that it's taken legal proceedings to have our voices heard."

A City Hall spokesman said on Wednesday: "The mayor is pleased to see the court has refused permission for the majority of the grounds. We will continue to robustly defend his life-saving decision to expand the ULEZ and continue with preparations without delay."