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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Kiro Evans & Estel Farell-Roig

Couple furious as they have to pay £12.50 every time they turn left out of driveway

A couple are furious at having to pay £12.50 every time they turn left out their driveway thanks to the unfortunate position of their home.

The house of George and Vera Dowler is positioned right on the border of the low emission zone in South East London.

Since the expansion of the low emission zone last month, the couple will now be hit with charges every time they drive their older cars past the traffic lights near their home.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said bold action taken since being elected has already led to a 94 per cent reduction in the number of Londoners living in areas that exceed the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide and that 87 per cent of cars travelling in the expanded zone already meet the standards.

The couple say they faced a charge any time they drove their older cars past the traffic lights near their home (my london)

MyLondon reports that the family say they have spent nearly £40,000 on new vehicles and wife Vera is having to park her non-compliant car at her work's garage around the corner.

The couple have lived in their South East London house for 32 years and found themselves right on the edge of the low emission boundary when rules changed.

While their house is inside the zone, turning left past the cameras and traffic lights and towards the nearby roundabout was enough to see them face a charge.

A sign for the recently-introduced Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) stands on Oxford Street in London (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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George said: "[ Sadiq Khan ] has cost me nearly £40,000 in motors. I've had to buy a car and pay £7,000 for a new van, which is no better than the one we've got.

"I've got a perfectly good van that can do 5,000 miles a year, yet a van that meets these emissions can do 100,000 miles more. Who's polluting the air more, me or him?"

Vera called the situation "disgusting" and said she now leaves her older car around the corner where she works in admin.

It means she can avoid the cameras perched on top of the traffic lights, which they say catch older vehicles right outside their home.

George added: "It's all about money. [If] people are prepared to still use their old vehicles, the air would be exactly the same, so it's all about money.

"What is the difference between the air here and the air the other side of the traffic lights?

"Also, I've been brought up around lorries and fumes, like thousands of other people. I'm 72 years of age, still fit as a fiddle. Surely it's not the air, surely it's the food that people eat. I just don't get it all.

"I've got a perfectly good van that if they want to use it on the other side of that roundabout. There's another 10 years left in it and they can use it, and I can't."

"What about the new F1 racing?" Vera added, referencing the reported negotiations London Mayor Khan is in to bring a Formula One track to the capital.

London mayor Sadiq Khan is keen to drive down the city's pollution (PA)

She believed that undermined his climate credentials and said: "It's absolutely crazy."

London's Ultra Low Emissions Zone came into force last month to try and fight the capital's pollution levels.

The expanded ULEZ covers all of the area within the North and South circulars, and runs 24 hours a day.

Do you have a story? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.

Four out of five motors currently meet the emission standards, but there are still thousands of older polluting cars on the road.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: "We know toxic air pollution in London leads to 4,000 premature deaths a year, stunts the growth of children’s lungs and worsens chronic illnesses, such as asthma.

“The bold action taken by Sadiq since he became Mayor has already led to a 94 per cent reduction in the number of Londoners living in areas that exceed the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels and the gap between the most and least deprived areas for exposure to nitrogen dioxide has narrowed by up to 50 per cent.

“Eighty seven per cent of cars seen travelling in the expanded zone already meet the standards and to help more Londoners switch to cleaner vehicles, Sadiq has invested £61 million in scrappage schemes, which have helped replace or retrofit more than 12,000 vehicles since 2019."

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