Mark Harper said Sadiq Khan «should at least think about grace periods.» Credit: Thomas Creech/Shutterstock
Transport Minister urged Sadiq Khan to give drivers a reprieve before imposing fines for the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) following the chaos on the first day of the extended scheme.
Mark Harper said it was «unwise» for Mr Hahn, the mayor of London, to allow people to receive tickets on Tuesday because a website that could check cars for compliance had experienced technical problems that caused drivers to checking their cars were forced to wait several minutes.
Ulez cameras across London have also been vandalized, with spray paint rendering them useless and protesters coming to Whitehall to demand that the Ulez expansion be rolled back.
Some Tory-led councils on the outskirts of the capital continue to refuse install signs warning of Ulez, which means that many drivers may not know when they have entered the zone.
Mr Khan's decision to expand the Ulez, which will charge polluting cars £12.50 a day to improve air quality, has drawn criticism from both within the Labor Party and Tory.
< p>Mr Harper told The Telegraph: «The Labor Mayor of London is responsible for administering the new measures against the poorest motorists.
“Since the Transport for London [TfL] website has gone down and caused confusion on the ground, it is unwise for Sadiq Khan to penalize people by fining them for being embroiled in this confusion and he should at least consider grace periods. /p>
The grace period would essentially mean that no fines would be charged to motorists who entered the newly expanded Ulez on Tuesday and for some period thereafter, giving people more time to adjust to the changes.
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A TfL spokesman responded to the criticism by saying that «all the signs needed to enforce the scheme are in place and the boundaries are clearly marked for drivers.»
On Tuesday, Mr. Khan defended the expansion of Oulez. to cover all of Greater London, acknowledging that the decision was «difficult» but arguing that the poorest were the hardest hit by London's air pollution problems.
TfL claims that only one in 10 vehicles is expected to bear the charge, with a scrappage scheme offering financial support to those affected.
But Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, criticized the Ulez expansion, saying: «There are one party and one person responsible for what is happening and that is the Mayor of the Labor Party and the Labor Party in London supported by Keir Starmer.”
Anger and confusion reigned in London and the counties on Tuesday as an extension that blames Labor for the failure of the Labor Party to win last month's Uxbridge by-election due to voter backlash went into effect.
London' ; s ULEZ expansion plan
Anti-Ulez protesters staged a new wave of vandalism, targeting automatic license plate recognition cameras installed to guard the new zone.
In south east London, Bromley, now part of the expanded zone . zone, 14 cameras on one road were broken, painted over with red paint or their wires were cut.
This meant that only two of the 16 cameras on the half-mile stretch of the A224 in Orpington remained unaffected. Locals said the cameras were only installed on Sunday.
In Harefield, in Hillingdon, west London, anti-Ulez militants cut off several cameras with what looked like an angle grinder. Images have surfaced of one of the overturned cameras with an orange box covering it with the words “No to Ulez” written on it.
In south London, a camera in Chessington, in the area of Kingston upon Thames, was captured with its lens painted white.
Ulez camera dropped in Harefield, West London. Photo: AJ Simpson/PA
The latest wave of vandalism came after the Metropolitan Police confirmed that a total of 288 Ulez camera-related crimes had been reported between April and August.
Keith Prince, Member of the Conservative Assembly in the Greater London Authority (GLA). ), pointed out problems with the site and hundreds of cameras either not yet installed or not working.
Mr Prince, who also chairs the GLA Transportation Committee, said: “Today was chaos and I saw pure anger in the streets. Sadiq Khan doesn't have enough cameras — he's supposed to have 2,700 cameras, but as of last Friday, only 1,900 have been installed, and about 500 of them have been vandalized.»
In Westminster, dozens of anti-Ulez activists gathered to demand that the expansion be cancelled. A few waved placards saying «Stop lying about toxic air» and car license plate mock-ups saying «Get Khan out.»
Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate for the next Mayor of London, said: » Ulez's first day was total chaos, and it's the Londoners who are paying the price. If Khan had listened to the people, he would never have gone for it.”
Should Sadiq Khan abandon Ulez's new expansion?
Mr Khan dismissed the suggestion that the Ulez expansion was part of a «war on motorists», telling Times Radio: «Let me be perfectly clear: London's air cleaner policy is not directed against cars or motorists. '.
He told BBC Breakfast that he considers clean air «a right, not a privilege», stating: «Now we have a really effective policy to reduce air pollution. Its effectiveness has been proven in central and inner London, but I believe that clean air is a right, not a privilege.
“What about outer London? Why can't they breathe clean air? Why should they continue to die prematurely in numbers that can be reversed?»
A TfL spokesperson stated, «Ulez is now alive and non-compliant vehicles are now responsible for this. We issue enforcement notices, which can take the form of warning letters if necessary, so we encourage all non-compliant vehicle owners to sign up for Auto Pay to avoid the risk of fines. If you are driving a non-compliant vehicle, the only way to avoid a fine is to pay the fine.”
A spokesman said that a waiting room has been set up on a vehicle compliance website in Waiting for large numbers visitors, and most users would wait no more than two minutes.
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