The number of charges for driving in London leapt by almost 300,000 in the week after the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez).
The daily charges cost London motorists in excess of £5.3 million in the first week alone, data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
It shows that between August 29 and September 4, 425,814 charges were paid, compared to 141,029 the week before the expansion.
The Ulez expansion, introduced by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, requires drivers in outer London whose vehicles do not meet emissions standards to pay a £12.50 daily fee to drive within the zone. Broadly, there are charges for petrol cars registered before January 2006 and diesel vehicles registered before September 2015.
Before August 29, the boundaries of the zone were the North Circular and South Circular roads. It now covers every road in the capital with new boundaries reaching Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.
Campaigners accuse the mayor of using Ulez as a money-making scheme and have questioned the benefit to the environment. The expansion became a dividing line in July’s Uxbridge & South Ruislip by-election, allowing the Tories to hang on to the seat after the resignation of Boris Johnson.
Research commissioned by Motorway, the used car marketplace, in the weeks prior to the expansion, found that 16 per cent of Londoners, equivalent to 714,000 people, did not own a Ulez-compliant vehicle.
Alex Buttle, the co-founder of the platform, said: “With the continued cost of living crisis and the recent expansion of London’s Ulez, more drivers who use the zone are questioning their driving habits. We know from our research that the financial implications are causing concern among drivers in London and the surrounding areas.”
The scale of the charges comes after reports that the advertising watchdog is set to criticise Transport for London (TfL), which administers the scheme, for “misleading” claims about the benefits of the expanded zone.
An investigation was carried out by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after hundreds of motorists complained that TfL was exaggerating the extent that the scheme had improved air quality.
A draft ASA report said there were “misleading” claims made about the reduction of nitrogen dioxide levels in TfL’s radio and newspaper advertisements, and recommendations state that two complaints about adverts are to be upheld, according to the Telegraph.
TfL sent almost 40,000 warning letters to drivers of non-compliant cars in the first week of the expansion and 2,000 to 3,000 more daily for a further three weeks before it began issuing fines.
TfL and Khan have said any net revenue raised through the Ulez will be reinvested into public transport, including the expansion of bus services in outer London.
Analysis of the impact on air pollution in London is due to be published after six months of the expanded scheme.
