At yesterday's Full Council meeting (Wednesday 26th July), Cllr Jonny Cope's proposed a motion for Surrey Heath to oppose ULEZ expansion to outer London.
This motion proposed that the Mayor of London re-think his flawed policy, and instead invest in improving the public transport network in outer London to make it easier for people to choose more sustainable transport choices. It also asked the Leader of Surrey Heath Borough Council to write to the Mayor to express Surrey Heath Borough Council's opposition to the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion to outer London and called on the Mayor to cancel it entirely.
The reasons cited for the expansion of ULEZ are to improve London's air quality and to combat climate change, however, the Jacob's Report, which summarises the findings from the impact assessment dated 17th May 2022, highlights otherwise.
Whilst the independent report states ULEZ expansion would result in a "minor positive" improvement to air quality, with average exposure of Greater London's population to nitrogen dioxide expected to decrease by 1.3% and particular matter by 0.1%, it's benefits in contributing to fighting climate change would be "negligible".
Instead, ULEZ expansion will lead to a much bigger negative impact for residents in Greater London and the surrounding home counties here in the South East, particularly for those on low incomes, disabled residents, tradespeople, teachers, nurses, emergency service workers, carers, and people receiving and accessing healthcare services. There are negative implications as well for children with special educational needs trying to get to school. This is all set out in the report:
"Overall there is likely to be a short to medium term differential and disproportionate moderate negative impact on social exclusion and isolation for people on low incomes, older people, and disabled peope who do not quality for the disabled vehicle tax class exemption and rely on the use of their own non-compliant vehicles.
"This may result in disproportionately poorer, socio-economic and wellbeing outcomes for these groups."
Economy wise, the report estimated there would be a loss in retail spending, an increase in the cost of operating LGVs and contraction of the labour market.
There are estimated to be around 1.5 million non-ULEZ-compliant vehicles in areas surrounding the capital, including as over 157,000 here in Surrey.
It is with this in mind, that the Conservative group put forward this motion before Council for Surrey Heath to oppose the planned expansion of ULEZ to outer London.
This motion, however, proved more controversial than envisaged, as for simply bringing forward this motion, Cllr Cope's conduct was described as “grubby” and “obscene” by Lib Dem Cllr Cliff Betton who accused it of being "politically motivated".
With heavy amendments from the Lib Dems and Labour, both supporters of ULEZ expansion and with the latter keen to roll out similar measures in towns and cities across the country, the motion was passed stating the Council’s stance should be for ULEZ to be delayed until a funded scrappage scheme could be established and implemented.
Commenting, Cllr Jonny Cope said:
"I presented a motion for the first time - calling on our Council to join others in Surrey in opposing ULEZ expansion to outer London. This is an issue which affects many Surrey Heath residents and I felt it important that as Councillors we discussed the impact of ULEZ expansion on Surrey Heath residents and set out a stance.
"It seems it was more controversial than I had envisaged. For simply bringing of the motion my conduct was described as “grubby” and “obscene” by one Liberal Democrat councillor, which I didn’t really understand given the impact ULEZ expansion has on local residents.
"In the end, due to the number of councillors on the Liberal Democrat and Labour sides who expressed their support for ULEZ expansion, we were able only to pass a heavily amended version of the motion stating the Council’s stance that ULEZ should be delayed until a funded scrappage scheme could be established and implemented. It’s well below what I think most Surrey Heath residents want but better than nothing."
Responding to Cllr Jonny Cope on social media, Lib Dem councillor for Lightwater, Kevin Thompson, tried to spin Cllr Cope's motion as having only been put forward due to the result of the Uxbridge & South Ruislip by-election. This for many residents in Lightwater is disappointing, as members of Windlesham Parish Council (who sit on the Lightwater Committee) have previously expressed their concerns that ULEZ expansion would detrimentally impact residents in the village who work and commute into Greater London and Heathrow Airport.
Cllr Kevin Thompson stated:
"I appreciate times are tough electorally for the Conservatives at the moment it's not surprising to see you pounce on any recent success (inching across the line in U&SR last week, where you narrowly won a de facto referendum on ULEZ). I'm just a little surprised you did it quite so soon as to make it so transparent to the electorate."
With Cllr Thompson being relatively new to his position, he may not have been aware the deadline for submitting this motion was before the Uxbridge & South Ruislip by-election result, meaning there's no substance to his comments.
What's perhaps more concerning, though unsurprising, is the Lib Dem disregard for 'referendums', especially considering in Uxbridge & South Ruislip they only received 526 votes (1.7% of the vote share), less than that of the Reclaim party candidate Laurence Fox.
The amendment to the motion was proposed by Lib Dem Cllr Richard Wilson - an Airbus A380 airline captain (the irony flying over his head) - was not in any of the paperwork available to members of the public in attendance, nor was it available online.
Rather than present his amendments, it was simply referred to as 'the amendment', leaving the public having no idea on what was being presented to the Council. From our perspective, as with many residents, this seems a little less than open and transparent - two pillars the current administration professed to stand upon within their pre-election literature earlier this year.
It's perhaps noteworthy that Cllr Wilson celebrated he was able to get the Conservative group "to accept my amendment which deleted all their culture war wording and replaced it with something a lot more LibDem-y. A victory for Surrey Heath Lib Dems." From the original motion proposed, it's difficult to see what wording he believes is part of the 'culture war'. Perhaps as a former Labour Parliamentary candidate, he still harbours ambitions to return to his original colours.
Surrey Heath Conservatives remain committed to standing up for local residents in our area and supporting our County Council in it's challenge against the Mayor of London in the High Court. We have a proven record of delivery and committing to a greener future - with former Cllr Mike Goodman having declared a climate emergency at Surrey County Council (SCC) in July 2019, and Surrey Heath Borough Council declaring it's own climate emergency several months later - but the ULEZ expansion, as proposed by the London Mayor, must be done in a practical and sustainable way.
As Leader of SCC Cllr Tim Oliver has said:
"The impact on many Surrey residents and businesses will be significant and we will not stand by and watch that happen with no mitigations offered from the Mayor."
Cllr Jonny Cope's motion can be found in the attached Surrey Heath Borough Council Public Reports Pack below.
The Full Council meeting is available to watch here.
