ULEZ: London Mayor Sadiq Khan has power to widen scheme, High Court told

The mayor of London has "express power" to expand the capital's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) into outer London, the High Court has heard.

Lawyers for five Conservative-led councils that are challenging Sadiq Khan's plan to expand the ULEZ, argue he acted unlawfully by applying an order "varying" existing regulations.

Mr Khan's barrister said it was legal to bring in changes to the scheme.

Currently ULEZ covers the area between the North and South Circular roads.

From 29 August, the Labour mayor wants to expand the ULEZ to include the whole of Greater London, covering an area three times the size of the current zone.

Under the plans, drivers of the most polluting cars, motorcycles and vans will have to pay £12.50 a day to enter the zone or face a fine of up to £160.

Mr Khan has said widening the scheme will improve London's air quality.

Outer London councils Bromley, Bexley, Hillingdon and Harrow, as well as Surrey County Council, are trying to block the expansion plans at the High Court.

At the end of the second day of the hearing on Wednesday, their barrister Craig Howell Williams KC said: "He (Sadiq Khan) has gone for an extremely tight, unprecedented timescale and in so doing courted disaster here."

He has said Mr Khan does not have the legal right to vary existing regulations in this way, alleging that the approach would "bypass legal safeguards" - a claim contested by the mayor's legal team.

"All that's happening is that new standards are being applied to different classes of vehicles," said Ben Jaffey KC, representing the mayor and Transport for London (TfL).

He said the law allowed TfL to make changes to the existing scheme, including adding new roads, different classes of vehicle and new charges.

The councils are seeking to persuade a judge that flaws in the consultation process were unlawful.

Mr Justice Swift has heard that information given to people was "unintelligible" and gave a "confused picture", claims rejected by City Hall's barrister.

Among the councils' arguments is that information was not publicly available to back up a claim by Mr Khan that 90% of vehicles in outer London would be compliant by August.

The assertion is based on data from 106 automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

Mr Jaffey said that while City Hall would not release the locations of the cameras because of the risk of vandalism, the modelling performed by TfL, and the information provided in the consultation, was "coherent".

In his closing statement, Mr Howell Williams said: "People should not have had to pore over sentences and move from document to document to understand what ULEZ would mean.

"What is at issue is this simple question of whether or not there was enough information to allow intelligent responses, both among the public and those with expertise."

The court also heard It was "perfectly lawful and proper" that a £110m scrappage scheme to help people replace non-compliant cars excludes drivers living outside the ULEZ.

Surrey County Council argues that a "buffer zone" should have been considered allowing some people in the county to be eligible for payments.

After concerns were raised by Labour MPs, Mr Khan recently made changes to the scrappage scheme allowing all people claiming child benefit to apply to the fund, as well as businesses with up to 50 employees - not just sole traders and "micro-businesses".

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