ULEZ Charge: Nick Ferrari Grills London's Deputy Mayor

8 April 2019, 09:10 | Updated: 8 April 2019, 09:11

Nick Ferrari questioned why the Mayor hadn't opted for an all-out ban when opting to penalise vehicles for their contribution to pollution in London.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) starts today, Monday 8th April 2019.

London is introducing the UK's first ULEZ in a bid to halve emissions from cars in the capital by 2020.It means that vehicles which do not meet strict emission requirements will face a daily charge to travel.

The ULEZ will apply to the same area as the current Congestion Charge zone.

On the day of its introduction Heidi Alexander, Deputy Mayor for Transport and Deputy Chair of Transport for London, spoke to Nick Ferrari about the new daily charge.

The Deputy Mayor emphasised the links between air pollution and heart attacks, cancer and the exacerbation of conditions like asthma, and said that they hoped to clean up the air and make London a more pleasant place to live.

"How does money make it better? If it's that bad, ban all of it", Nick said.

The Deputy Mayor defended the introduction of ULEZ, arguing that that they had intended to strike a balance and aimed for a reduction of 45% in road emissions.

Nick then questioned Ms Alexander about how the ordinary tradesman with an older, polluting van would afford the new charge and it soon became apparent that there would be a shortfall between the compensation offered for older vehicles and the cost of a new vehicles.

Nevertheless, the Deputy Mayor pointed out that they were doing their best to tackle the issue in an "unfair situation" whereby London had received no funding from the government for such a scheme, while other cities had.

Listen to the clip in full above...