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The proposals for the London Low Emission Zone have now been published in preparation
for consultation. How this affects Preserved Buses is buried deep within available
documents, but as it takes some finding some owners have expressed concern that
preserved vehicles will not be able to enter the London area at all.
The consultation documents are all available on the Transport for London web
site.
The proposals state that:
- The area affected is the whole of Greater London.
- The preferred option is to not "ban" any non-compliant vehicles
but to apply a "substantial daily charge". The suggested price is
£100 to £200 per day.
- Vehicles that would be covered by the proposed LLEZ in 2008 are diesel-engined
HGV's over 3.5 tonnes, and buses and coaches with more than 17 seats (excluding
driver) licensed for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward, voluntary,
community or other non-profit purposes.
- A limited number of exemptions would apply to those specialist vehicles
for which the fitting of abatement equipment is not an option, and where it
would be unreasonable to require replacement. One of the outright exemptions
already stated is for "Heritage Vehicles, because they cannot be replaced
and their total contribution to air pollution is minimal, as such vehicles
are driven infrequently".
Remember this is only at consultation stage, but at the moment it would appear
that preserved vehicles will not be affected by the legislation.
Consultation is scheduled for completion in April 2006, with the results being
published in the Summer. The earliest possible implementation date is early
2008.
*** UPDATE ***
The decisions made after the consultation were published in May 2007. 100% discount
on the LLEZ charges will apply to historic vehicles - which are defined as being
vehicles built before 1973. Unfortunately, preserved vehicles built after that
date will be charged £200 per day for any movement inside the defined
LLEZ area, which is (looseley speaking) the area inside the M25.
**** FURTHER UPDATE ****
TfL have decided that automatic exemption (rather than 100% discount) will
apply to the above historic vehicles. This means that no special appication
will be needed for such vehicles to enter the zone.
Useful sources
This page was last updated on
Monday, 26-Oct-2009 17:19:29 GMT
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