Heathrow bosses look to help staff beat Ulez charge by turning golf club into park and ride
20 September 2023, 12:33
Heathrow Airport bosses want to save staff from the Ulez charge by setting up a new park and ride.
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The airport has applied for planning permission to turn a nearby disused golf driving range into a temporary space for employees before they get compliant vehicles.
If the park and ride were approved, employees could park outside the zone before being shuttled into the airport.
Some 10,000 Heathrow workers drive non-compliant vehicles, 5,000 of whom live outside Greater London.
Heathrow is within Ulez, which expanded to cover every London borough on August 29. Anyone who drives within the zone with a non-compliant car has to pay £12.50 per day.
Read more: Where are the Ulez cameras and how do they work?
The park and ride would have space for 961 cars. The golf driving range has not been used since 2015, Heathrow said.
Airport bosses said that the park and ride would help its employees on lower incomes, who would be "disproportionately" affected by Ulez expanding.
"The Ulez disproportionately affects lower income employees and their families who are not as readily able to switch their vehicle, for instance," Heathrow said.
"On that basis, it is considered that the economic implications of the ULEZ expansion would have a significant impact upon the socio-economic circumstances of many employees."
Some people living nearby who commented on the application said that they objected to having lots of polluting vehicles parked close to their homes.
The Ulez charge applies to all vehicles that have emissions standards older than Euro 4 for petrol engines, or Euro 6 for diesel engines.
That means that petrol vehicles registered before 2005 and diesel vehicles registered before 2015 are likely to have pay the charge.
Taxis, historic vehicles older than 40 years old, and vehicles with a 'disabled' or 'disabled passenger vehicles' tax class are exempt
Ulez works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 364 days a year.
The one exception is Christmas day.
The application was submitted in August.
