Transport for London revealed on Tuesday that 7 out of 10 drivers issued with a fine of £180 for not paying the daily £12.50 charge remain unpaid.
One motorist, who has received over 200 fines, owes TfL £47,682, with most drivers who fail to pay the daily charge receiving an average of 12 fines. In total, TfL admitted in a Freedom of Information response, that almost a million fines worth £218,316,553 were ‘outstanding’.
Revenue from ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) charges and fines are reinvested in London’s public transport network with a drive to make all 8,500 of London’s buses net zero by 2030.
TfL commissioner, Andy Lord, denied that the mayor and TfL were waging a war on the motorist and predicted that the new, expanded ULEZ would deliver ‘very significant’ improvements to air quality.
Mr Lord went onto the Transit Unplugged podcast and said: “There will be a report in the next month or so which will show, six months on, what the impacts and benefits have been of the ultra-low emission zone expansion.
“We are expecting it to be very significant. We already know from our own data that the number of compliant vehicles has increased, and therefore by default the air quality should have improved.
“We have seen some congestion improvements as well. Some people will say this is us having a ‘war on the motorist’. It absolutely isn’t. It’s around improving air quality. At the same time, if it delivers some traffic easing, that’s great.”
A TfL spokesperson said: “The Ulez is not about making money. It will lead to cleaner air while generating ever smaller net revenues, as has been the case with the previous expansion to inner London where people switched to greener vehicles.
“We encourage all PCN [penalty charge notice] recipients to engage with us, particularly if they are struggling with any difficulties or hardship. Unpaid PCNs are passed on to our debt recovery services and can lead to further action.”
London and Glasgow are currently the only places in the UK that operates a ULEZ, however, other cities have implemented CAZ (Clean Air Zones) that charge ‘excluded’ vehicles for entering the zone. These towns and cities include:
- Bath
- Birmingham
- Bradford
- Bristol
- Greater Manchester (under review)
- Portsmouth
- Sheffield
- Tyneside – Newcastle and Gateshead
