Preserved Buses and the London Low Emission Zone

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

• Transport for London Low Emission Zone pages - the consultation documents are available for download as PDF files.
• May 2007 statement following the consultation

This page was last updated on Thursday, 27-Nov-2008 10:48:54 UTC

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