Disabled campaigners have won concessions from The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after he recently announced that he will expand the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide to tackle the threats of air pollution, congestion, and the threat of climate change.
The expansion will come into effect on Tuesday 29 August 2023 and will operate across all the London boroughs up to the existing Low Emission Zone boundary, which was introduced in April 2019. However, campaigners were worried that the plan would discriminate against thousands of Disabled Londoners who depend on their own transport.
The mayor had already been planning some exemptions for disabled people, but campaigners and Disabled people’s organisations told him these measures were not enough, calling on him to do more with the result of further exemptions now being announced.
These new measures include extending the existing exemption periods for London’s disabled drivers and community transport minibuses run by not-for-profit organisations to October 2027 and October 2025 respectively and introducing new exemption periods for disabled drivers and wheelchair accessible vehicles as well as granting an exemption to all Disabled people receiving any rate of the mobility component of PIP and some other disability benefits until 2027. This means that 280,000 more Disabled people will be able to benefit from the new ULEZ temporary exemptions amongst others.
ULEZ Fairness for Disabled Drivers spokesperson Kush Kanodia said “I started this campaign approximately two years ago and would like to congratulate all the people and organisations who supported us on our campaign. The next stage of the campaign will be to replicate the success for Disability Inclusion from London to the rest of the UK.”
Dan White policy and campaigns officer at DR UK said “So many freedoms for Disabled people are being eroded and to be able to travel freely in your own vehicle should not be under threat on top of everything currently affecting the community. As welcome as the concessions are it would have been better to have Disabled representatives advising all the way along with this process. Praise must be given to the tireless campaigners and I hope now that this fairness to Disabled drivers feeds into other cities across the UK like York where Disabled campaigners are still fighting for access.”
For more information see Disabled campaigners welcome mayor’s ‘significant improvements’ to clean air scheme available from Disability News Service
