Ulez: One month on and many unanswered questions

The ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) expansion across the whole of London has been in place for a month but it is remains very difficult to assess its impact.

What has happened over the past month has been a soft launch.

Fines have yet to be made for non-compliant vehicles although thousands of warning letters have been sent out.

Transport for London (TfL) said fines will start to be issued on 4 October for those who have been driving non-compliant vehicles in the new zone from 26 September.

But it can't tell us at the moment what impact the scheme has had.

In previous Ulez expansions, most of the shift into compliant vehicles happened before the start of the scheme.

There's nothing to say that hasn't happened but the data that shows how many compliant or non-compliant cars are moving in the zone isn't public.

I'm told we may get that "in the Autumn".

And, as we know when seasons are given as a deadline, that can shift.

One thing is for certain, there are many people caught up in the scrappage scheme, which seems to have been inundated with applications and can't cope.

The scrappage scheme was opened to all Londoners at short notice and that was not the initial plan.

So far, £100m of the £160m committed to the scheme has been allocated.

It seems that left the system underprepared, and one driver stuck in the system said it had been "overwhelmed".

Alex Anderson, from Peckham, saw his car towed away for scrappage on Friday.

Since then, he has been trying to get hold of his Certificate of Destruction so he can get the scrappage money.

"The scrap dealers have said they are so full at the moment, with all the cars that are coming in, that they don't have the ability to scrap anything at the moment," Mr Anderson said.

"In fact my car hasn't even been registered at the scrap dealership yet."

"It's very frustrating. At the moment I have no car - it is in someone else's possession. I have got no money for it. I have been promised phone calls from the company.

"The next step is seriously if I don't hear from anyone I'll have to call the police.

"The car has been taken off me and no-one can give me an idea where the scrappage certificate is. It's a bit shoddy at the moment."

Drivers, who have yet to hear from TfL after applying six weeks ago, have been in contact with BBC London.

Many people have applied for scrappage only to be bogged down in multiple rejections.

Many have complained documentation has been rejected when it is actually correct.

Any query or change to an application is met with the reply that it will take 10 days to process.

A spokesperson for TfL said: "We apologise if anyone's scrappage application is taking too long, and we are working hard to ensure that everyone is responded to as quickly as possible.

"Ahead of the Ulez scrappage scheme expanding to all Londoners with a non-compliant car or motorcycle, we increased our resource to deal with the volume of applications.

"We are aiming to accept or decline scrappage applications within 10 working days. We have a robust process in place to verify the documents we receive as part of our measures to guard against fraud.

"The application process can take longer if we need to undertake additional verification procedures, such as further checks to the required documents."

Many are not getting an answer within 10 working days.

At Mayor's Question Time last week, Sadiq Khan said TfL would release data on the first month of the scheme, at six months and a year. But it would take time to collate the data.

"We will follow the practice that we followed in previous ultra-low emission schemes in Central London, Inner London and now Outer London," he said on 14 September.

"My understanding was the practice in those schemes was we published a report looking at the first month, we publish a report in draft form looking at the first six months and we publish a report in draft form looking at the first year."

"I've not been given a timeline when they will publish by TfL but what I have been assured by TfL they will follow the same practice."

What we do know is that 1.1m drivers are signed up to TfL's autopay system, to avoid a fine.

But we probably won't get data on Ulez expansion - or be able to assess its impact - for a few more weeks.

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