WHILE London spirals into political meltdown over Ulez, motorists across the country are also rebelling against similar anti-car schemes.
Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan is refusing to ditch his unpopular policy – vowing to drive it out to the very edge of London by the end of the summer.
Drivers protest at Ulez outside the High Court – as motorists across the country warn they will punish politicians slapping similar charges on them
Seething Sir Keir Starmer blames Mr Khan’s scheme for their failure to win Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge.
It has plunged the Labour party into open civil war with angry MPs fearing the “anti-car cult” could cost them crucial seats in London at the next election.
However, schemes have been creeping out all over England after the government ordered all areas to bring down air pollution by 2024.
Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside all have different versions of their own clean air zones.
Across these cities, locals are threatening to punish politicians whacking them with a drivers tax at the ballot box.
“You can’t turn left or right without thinking what it’s going to cost you,” says fed-up Birmingham watchmaker Trevor Jennings, 59.
“They’ll be charging you £5 to get out of bed soon.”
He speaks for legions of angry motorists up and down the country who face being clobbered by daily fines just for driving their car.
These ‘clean air zones’ (CAZ) are areas where drivers of older petrol or diesel motors have to pay around a tenner a day to drive.
Birmingham’s scheme has been in place for two years, with drivers of older and polluting cars, taxis and large goods vehicles charged £8 a day to drive in the city.
Gas-guzzling coaches and HGVs incur a £50 charge.
Vehicle scrappage and travel credit schemes were put in place but drivers say it is not enough.
Labour-run Birmingham City Council has trousered more than £52 million in fines and a further £26 million in daily charges thanks to the scheme.
Fines start at £120, cut to £60 if paid within 14 days. However, thousands of people have refused to pay out.
Locals are raging over the “unclear” signage, business owners say it has hit footfall and visitors to the famous Bullring shopping centre complain about being caught out.
Michelle Marshall, 45, a health care assistant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, lives inside the CAZ in the Lee Bank area of Birmingham.
She sometimes has to collect deliveries from the end of her road when drivers refuse to enter the zone and even had to pay the extra charge for the delivery of a bed.
The mother-of-two warned that if politicians expanded the zone further: “It wouldn’t make me want to vote for them.”
Among those hardest hit are Birmingham’s taxi drivers who say they will think twice before voting for those who force anti-driver penalties on them.
They include Musa Ali, 47, who said: “I have to pay an extra £56 a week. Of course I am angry. How much is it going to be in another year? There’s a 15 year age limit [on cabs] and then you have to buy another car and it’s about £70,000 for a new car.”
Cab driver of 35 years Ram Singh added: “It’s an indirect tax. There’s more traffic on the ring road now, which is causing more pollution. So I don’t see any real benefits.”
Market stall worker Ahsan Ali, 41, said footfall had slowed by up to 30% on some days and blasted politicians who: “Don’t think about the layman.”
Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, wants the scheme ditched.
Mr Mahmood said: “The worst off people always get hurt the most – in the pocket and their lifestyle.”
Turning his guns on fellow Labour politician Mr Khan, he fumed: “People can sit in their ivory towers and decide these things and allow themselves to be the big crusaders on the environment – we all want better quality of air – but let’s have proper facts and deal with it properly.”
He said he was worried the scheme will hurt Labour’s electoral prospects, adding: “After the Uxbridge election people are becoming aware of it.
“Let’s provide proper public transport and support the people rather than penalise the poorest.”
A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said the percentage of the most polluting vehicles entering the zone had more than halved since the CAZ’s introduction – from 15.2% in June 2021 to 6.4% in May 2023.
Over in Bradford locals are similarly incensed over their CAZ which only applies to business vehicles, with charges ranging from £7 for a Hackney carriage to £50 for a HGV.
Dave Robson, a 60-year-old landscape gardener from Bradford who runs his own business, is furious.
“My message to our politicians is that you can stick your Clean Air Zone up your arse,” Mr Robson said.
Sandra Ellis, a 64-year-old domestic cleaner at Bradford Royal Infirmary said: “We just feel like we keep getting hit with harebrained schemes, which does nothing for morale or making us proud of the city we live in.”
Local cab driver Habib Nawaz, 52, said it was an “awful system” and added: “Politicians need to listen to what their constituents are saying. Nobody wanted this.”
Robbie Moore, Tory MP for Keighley and Ilkley, said the Labour-run council’s “tax” had been “nothing short of a disaster”.
“It’s high time politicians wake up to these disastrous taxation regimes,” he added.
A Bradford Council spokesperson stressed the CAZ was directed by government and only affects the “most polluting older commercial vehicles”.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Meanwhile, in Greater Manchester a fierce backlash has seen plans for the city’s CAZ put on hold after Labour Mayor Andy Burnham refused to back them.
One shadow minister commented: “Burnham read the room and Khan didn’t.”
While down in London Mr Khan is ploughing on with Ulez, up in Manchester Mr Burnham has been scrambling to distance himself from the policy – worried it could harm his re-election chances.
He told TalkTV this week: “We’re in a stalemate still with the government about this. We want an incentive led approach, the government are still saying they want a charging scheme on the city centre.”
Greater Manchester’s clean air lead, Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, stressed they want a plan “that does not harm livelihoods, jobs and businesses”.
Couple James, 76, and Sheila Drew, 68, from Harpurhey, Manchester, doubted how effective the scheme would be.
Mrs Drew said: “It’s a waste of money. How much will it all cost? Andy Burnham seems to have changed his mind too much and I can’t see how it will work if inflation and the cost-of-living stays high.”
Her husband added: “I think he’ll lose votes because of it. I won’t be voting for him again anyway.”
Plumber Charlie Trafford, 22, from Bury, forked out £9,000 on a new van to avoid being stung by the daily levy.
He described the plan as a “vote loser”, adding: “People need to be given the right sort of help.”
Over in Newcastle, the CAZ charges polluting taxis, minibuses and light goods vehicles £12.50 per day. Non-compliant buses, coaches and HGVs are charged £50.
Alan Hughes, owner of The Best costs Less in Grainger Market, had to fork out £500 for an old car as he would be slapped with a fine if he used his work van.
The 70-year-old, from Newcastle, said: “Businesses had a hard time during the pandemic and we’ve just got back on our feet before we’ve been lumped with this.
“If a politician was supporting this or bringing in more charges, I probably wouldn’t vote for them.”
Builder Martin Cooper, 56, fumed: “It’s working class people that are picking up the bill again.
“If you’re rich enough to afford the fine, you’re rich enough to have a brand new car.
“It’s all the poor people who can’t afford to update their vehicle that will be slapped with a fine.
“I wouldn’t vote for any politician who supports these policies. It will put a lot of people off voting for them.”
Taxi driver Denis Badger, 28, from Newcastle, said: “The charges are horrible. I’ve had to pay £50 each week and that’s with a discount.
“I can barely afford it and I’m having to put it back on my customers which I don’t want to do but I have no choice.
“It’s just the council looking for easy money during the cost of living crisis.”
Maureen Young, 80, a retired civil servant said: “It’s putting pressure on working class people.
“It won’t make a difference to climate change when there are big companies polluting the air with their factories.
“It would put me off voting for any politician that endorsed this.
“That’s why Labour lost the by election in Uxbridge, because they supported these fines.”
Linda Thompson, 72, a support worker from Newcastle, said: “It’s penalising people for going to work.”
Stroll through any of these cities and this simmering rage is there among motorists.
And with a general election expected next year, both parties are terrified of getting on the wrong side of this mutiny of the motorist.
Rishi Sunak and the Tory party are using the Ulez row to stick the knife into Labour.
They turned the Uxbridge byelection into a referendum on Ulez – and won.
Keir Starmer
Expect them to do the same across other constituencies hit with charges by Labour mayors.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir is desperate to try to stop Labour being painted as the anti-car party.
But he seems unable to put the brakes on his own mayors pursuing it.
Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK and London Mayoral candidate, warned: “The big political parties will now pay more than severely at the ballot box.”
