Letters: Labour’s shameful defence of Ulez 

Unfair Ulez

Sir: I hope Ross Clark’s article (‘Highway robbery’, 22 July) will open people’s eyes to the unfair disadvantage Sadiq Khan has been imposing on those on lower and middle incomes in London. As a jobbing gardener who relies on the use of a van, I had just paid off the lease, with the intention of keeping the vehicle until I retired, when I became a victim of the first expansion of the Ulez zone in 2021. I live 200 metres within the boundary: driving that 200 metres in and out to go to work costs me £12.50 a day.

Ulez is a regressive tax that falls particularly hard on the elderly and disabled, as there is no exemption for Blue Badge holders (Labour GLA members voted down a proposed amendment by the Conservative group to allow an exemption). If people in these groups fail to qualify for the higher rate of disability allowance, they are more likely to depend on older vehicles.

It is shameful that Labour has been responsible for this tax, which seems part of a drive to make mobility the privilege of the rich once again. That high-pitched whine you can hear is the sound of my late father and his fellow lifelong Labour activists and supporters spinning in their graves.

Bob O’Dwyer

London SW4

Breakdown

Sir: Ross Clark writes that ‘As reality has set in, it has become clear there is a limited market for [electric] cars’. This despite Ulez and similar schemes across Britain. We all know about the limits to recharging infrastructure and battery life but a point that hasn’t been made as much is what happens when they break down. Roadside assistance can’t get them back on the road. Worse, they are immobilised when the electrics malfunction, and cannot be pushed out of the way. The result is that they remain blocking the traffic until the emergency services show up.