London garage owner labels ULEZ expansion ’a catastrophe’

The ULEZ will be expanded in August to cover all London boroughs

London ULEZ
Photo: Bigstock

The owner of a garage in London has said the planned expansion of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will cost his business around £300,000.

Colin Ferns, who runs a Mercedes-Benz workshop in Richmond, told MyLondon that many customers are ditching their cars ahead of the expansion in August. The ULEZ, which was extended in 2021, is being widened to include all London boroughs.

“A lot of customers have sold their cars so we aren’t seeing them anymore,” he said. ”A huge portion of my customers have had to part with their cars. It’s a catastrophe; it’s having a detrimental impact on my my business.”

Owners of petrol cars which fail to meet Euro 4 standards, and diesel cars which don’t meet Euro 6 emissions regulations, face a daily charge of £12.50 for driving in the ULEZ.

There are wider issues for garage owners, many of which are overlooked in the mainstream media. The widening of the ULEZ will have an impact on road tests, the provision of courtesy cars and the running of recovery vehicles.

Colin added: “Apart from losing customers, we are going to start getting bills for road tests. [Due to] the nature of the work we do, we have to drive it [the car in for work] four or five times to get it fixed. It’s preposterous.”

He expects the value of his business to fall from £600,000 to £300,000 following the ULEZ expansion.

’No time to waste’

Last year, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: ”Expanding the ULEZ London-wide has not been an easy decision. The easy thing for me would have been to kick the can down the road. But in the end, public health comes before political expediency.

”We have too often seen measures delayed around the world to tackle air pollution and the climate crisis because it’s viewed as being too hard or politically inconvenient. But there’s no time to waste when people’s lives are on the line and we are facing a climate crisis.

”As mayor, I’m not willing to turn a blind eye because it’s clear the cost of inaction – to our economy, to livelihoods, to the environment and the health of Londoners – would be a far too high a price to pay.  Expanding ULEZ is the right choice for our city and something that I know will help us to continue building a better, greener, fairer and healthier London for everyone.” 

Sue Goodman, who owns a Mercedes-Benz SL500, would rather pay the ULEZ charge than ditch her car. ”I do not know what I will do,” she said, before labelling the Tube, ”bl**** inconvenient”. Dr Ian Sissons, owner of an SL55, agrees, saying he is unwilling to sell his “fab car”.

The current ULEZ, which covers all parts of the city within the North and South Circular Roads, will be expanded again on 29 August, 2023.

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