Petrol/diesel cars could be fined for using London’s ‘electric streets’

The project is intended to cut pollution and improve air quality.

Drivers of petrol and diesel cars will be restricted from using some roads in the Shoreditch and Old Street areas of the city between 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm on weekdays.

Only ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs), which emit less than 75/kg of carbon dioxide, will be able to use streets freely.

In the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external London <em>Evening Standard</em> false https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/londons-first-ultralow-emissions-streets-everything-you-need-to-know-as-petrol-and-diesel-cars-are-a3923856.html false false%> Caroline Russell, London Assembly member, says that Islington and Hackney boroughs “have seized the opportunity to give people a really strong message about taking pollution seriously and to show the scale of London’s health emergency”.
 
The article explains the European Union legal limit for nitrogen dioxide - an annual average of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air - was breached at more than 50 monitoring sites in London last year.

London mayor Sadiq Khan’s air quality fund is subsidising the initiative along with the UK government’s %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Go Ultra Low City Scheme false https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/our-key-themes/transport/roads/gulcs false false%> – a project set-up to help establish London as the ‘ULEV capital of Europe’.

Roads involved in the scheme include Blackall Street, Cowper Street, Paul Street, Tabernacle Street, Ravey Street, Singer Street, Willow Street, Charlotte Road and Rivington Street.

Feryal Demirci, deputy mayor of Hackney, says: “Failing to act on poor air quality, which causes nearly 10,000 premature deaths across London every year, is not an option, and that’s why we’re being bolder than ever in our efforts to tackle it.”

Part of the initiative will take place in the streets surrounding Central Foundation Boys School in Islington.

Claudia Webbe, Islington council’s executive member for environment and transport, says it is the most polluted state secondary school in the capital.

The City of London Corporation intends to launch a similar scheme in April which will limit access to Moor Lane, near Moorgate, to ULEVs.