The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that 387 ULEZ cameras have been damaged, stolen or obscured in London as ‘Blade Runner activists wage war on the eco-scheme that aims to reduce emissions.
So far, the group that opposes the expansion of the ULEZ scheme have targeted the cameras installed by Transport for London (TfL) between April and mid-August. The activists say they will not stop until they have removed every ULEZ camera in the capital.
Typical methods employed by the ‘Blade Runners’ include cutting the camera’s wires, painting over the lens, or completely removing the device. Metropolitan Police said there have been around 185 reports of destroyed cables, 164 stolen cameras and 38 obscured. Dozens of number plate reading cameras have also been vandalised or covered up, according to TfL.
Footage emerged last week of a masked ‘Blade Runner’ using a tree lopper to cut a camera’s cables before destroying another nearby. Diners at the unknown location watched the hooded figure walk away with the pruning tool in hand, leaving the camera dangling.
In another recent incident, a fellow vigilante was filmed climbing up a traffic light pole with what appears to be a drill and unscrewing a camera in Bromley, south London.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the ULEZ expansion last month, hoping to boost air quality in the capital. Launching on August 29, the new borders will reach Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.
Mr Khan previously described his decision as “very difficult” but insisted it would “see five million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air”.
Some 1,900 cameras have been installed in outer London, and a further 2,750 are being fixed in new areas to be covered by the expansion.
Vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards must pay a £12.50 daily fee when used in the ULEZ zone or face a fine.
Figures obtained by the RAC show more than 690,000 licensed cars in London are likely non-compliant. This does not consider other types of vehicles or those which enter London from neighbouring counties.
With so many new cameras being installed that one assumes can be used not just to enforce the ULEZ scheme but for other purposes, this would seem to be another massive intrusion on peoples’ privacy in what is already the most surveilled city in the world.
For many, this could not come at a worse time, with the cost of living still high, and this is yet another added expense that many can ill afford. It is, in fact, another tax on the most hard-pressed in society who will be unable to either afford the daily charge or a compliant vehicle. Many small businesses and tradesmen will be hit either by the charge itself or by a drop in trade caused by people choosing to shop in areas without the ULEZ zone.
Khan has announced a scrappage scheme worth £110 million, though this will hardly scratch the surface of the scale of the problem. Eligible applicants can get up to £2,000 for scrapping a car or up to £1,000 for scrapping a motorcycle. For wheelchair-accessible vehicles, there is a payment of £10,000 to scrap or £6,000 to retrofit to the ULEZ standards. Vans and minibuses can receive a grant of between £6000 and £11500.
According to data from AutoTrader, the median price of a compliant Ulez vehicle in 2021 was £12,989. This has now risen to £18,295.
Its analysis also shows in February, there were 43,359 Ulez-compliant cars for sale in London, with an average cost of £15,000 and £19,991 for petrol and diesel, respectively. Only about 5,000 of these compliant cars are for sale under £5,000. Within a 100-mile radius of London are about 90,000 compliant petrol cars, 8,000 of which cost under £5,000. So, Khan’s grants are unlikely to help many of the worst off in London, while the wealthiest will enjoy a nice windfall towards their next car.
Many also say that the scheme will not see the reduction in polluting gases that Khan claims it will, with an independent assessment claiming that the Ulez expansion will result in only a “minor” reduction in NO2 pollution exposure of 1.3%. London has already seen significant advances in cleaning up its pollution problems since the days of the great smogs of London. It appears that the ULEZ scheme will have only a minor impact on continuing this improvement but will detrimentally impact ordinary people’s lives.
The truth is that there is no safe pollution level and that we will always see deaths in urban areas that are contributed to by pollution. But we must remember that these deaths are not always a direct result of pollution but other factors, such as poor healthcare, poor housing, poor lifestyle choices, workplace health and safety and poverty. Improving our nation’s health must be about much more than knee-jerk showpiece reactions such as the ULEZ scheme.
