LONDON (AP) \u2014 London\u2019s traffic cameras are under attack. Police say hundreds of license plate-reading cameras have been damaged, disconnected or stolen by opponents of an anti-pollution charge on older vehicles that comes into force across the metropolis on Tuesday.
The vandalism by vigilantes calling themselves the Blade Runners shows that emotions are running high over the city\u2019s\u00a0Ultra Low Emission Zone. London\u2019s mayor says the measure will cut air pollution that is linked to about 4,000 deaths a year in the British capital. Critics say it\u2019s a cash grab that will penalize suburban residents who depend on their cars for work and essential travel.
\u201cThe cameras are going to keep coming down,\u201d predicted Nick Arlett, who has organized protests against the clean-air charge and says he neither condones nor condemns the sabotage \u201cPeople are angry.\u201d
Moves in the U.K. to cut air pollution and reduce car use have become a political flashpoint. Supporters say cynical politicians and conspiracy theorists are exploiting opposition to the plans. The Conservative government has attacked London\u2019s vehicle levy, leading to allegations it\u00a0is backing down on green pledges.
London\u2019s plan, known as the ULEZ, levies a 12.50 pound (about $16) daily charge on most gas cars and vans built before 2006 and on pre-2015 diesel vehicles. Introduced in central London in 2019, it was expanded in 2021 to the city\u2019s inner suburbs. From Tuesday it covers all of Greater London, including the sprawling outer suburbs where more than half the city\u2019s 9 million people live.
Mayor Sadiq Khan says the expansion means \u201c5 million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air.\u201d
But it has drawn intense opposition from some suburbanites, who say it punishes working people amid a cost-of-living squeeze that saw inflation top 11% late last year as food and fuel prices soared. Outer London has higher levels of car ownership and less public transit than the city center.
\u201cIt\u2019s going to make poor people poorer,\u201d said Anna Austen, who says she relies on her 15-year-old diesel car to get to work and take her children to school.
\u201cI have no money to pay the fines, I have no money to replace my car,\u201d said Austen, who joined a recent protest by several dozen ULEZ opponents beside a busy road in south London. Some passing drivers honked loudly when encouraged to \u201cbeep for freedom.\u201d
The anti-pollution levy shot up the national political agenda in July when the governing Conservatives unexpectedly won\u00a0a special election\u00a0in the outer London district of Uxbridge by campaigning against the levy introduced by mayor Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party.
Since then, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has asked for a review of Low Traffic Neighborhoods \u2014 often locally controversial zones where cars are banned from some residential streets \u2014 and slammed Labour as hostile to motorists. He has also approved new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, leading to accusations the U.K. is\u00a0backsliding on its climate commitments.
Sunak\u2019s government says it remains committed to banning the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2030 and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Labour was rattled by the Uxbridge result, despite its big lead in opinion polls nationwide. Party leader Keir Starmer urged London\u2019s mayor to \u201creflect\u201d on the ULEZ expansion. Khan refused to delay, but expanded a scrappage program that offers London residents up to 2,000 pounds ($2,500) to replace old vehicles. Opponents say the money is nowhere near enough.
\u201cI recognize there are some Londoners with genuine concerns,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cMy job is to try and address those concerns, and I have been doing that.\u201d
The air in London, a city once nicknamed the Big Smoke, is getting cleaner\u00b8 though the impact of the ULEZ is debated. A 2021 study by Imperial College London suggested the zone had a relatively small effect on air pollution in the 12 weeks after its central London launch. But research published by the mayor\u2019s office in February found that emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides were 26% lower in the ULEZ area since 2019 than they would have been without it, and emissions of particulate matter were 19% lower.
\u201cWe know that low emission zones work,\u201d said Simon Birkett, director of campaigning group Clean Air in London, arguing that \u201cbig problems need big solutions.\u201d
ULEZ opponents include trade unions and ordinary Londoners, but backers of the plan say some of the protests are being drummed up by extremists. Khan told radio station LBC last week that opposition had been \u201cweaponized\u201d by \u201cpeople who believed in conspiracy theories.\u201d
At a recent demonstration, protesters chanted \u201cGet Khan out,\u201d and many placards attacked the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor personally, sometimes in crude terms. Several protesters referred to Khan as a puppet of larger forces, including the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, that they alleged seek to control society. Some also expressed doubt about the extent of human-caused climate change.
One group involved in the protests\u00b8 Together, was created in 2021 to campaign against coronavirus lockdowns and vaccine mandates. It has since turned its attention to low traffic neighborhoods, clean-air schemes and plans for central bank digital currencies.
Co-founder Alan Miller says he\u2019s no conspiracy theorist but that over all those issues the public feels \u201cignored and treated with contempt\u201d by politicians and bureaucrats.
Other European cities have had varied results with plans to tackle air pollution. Madrid has a similar low emission zone to London, while Paris recently postponed until 2025 a ban on diesel and older petrol cars that had been due to start this year.
Supporters of the London plan hope opposition will fade over time. But Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said he expects to see politicians exploit this \u201cclassic political wedge issue\u201d in next year\u2019s national election.
\u201cThe use of cars and freedom to use them and where people can drive have great cut-through, in a way that many other issues don\u2019t,\u201d Travers said. \u201cCould pro- and anti-motorists be turned into a theme for the general election? I think it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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