Car-hating Sadiq Khan to hit millions of drivers with ANOTHER daily fee up to £17 on top of £12.50 Ulez and £15 C-charge
CAR-HATING Sadiq Khan is preparing to hit millions of drivers with another daily fee of up to £17 on top of his £12.50 Ulez and £15 congestion charges.
London‘s Labour mayor has been given permission for new road tunnel signs introducing new fees for motorists across the capital.
Mr Khan‘s Transport for London authority has drawn up new signs which reveal motorists face paying up to £8.50 per time to use the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels from 2025 onwards.
It is currently free to drive through both the Blackwall and Rotherhithe tunnels, while the Dartford Crossing has a £2.50 toll.
The proposed new signs have now been approved by the Conservative government’s transport secretary Mark Harper.
The existing two-lane Blackwall tunnels underneath the River Thames and linking north and south London are presently free to use.
The £1.2billion Silvertown tunnel beneath the river, connecting Silvertown in the east London borough of Newham with Greenwich south of the Thames, is scheduled to .
Supporters say it should ease congestion along the Blackwall routes.
Documents published on the Department for Transport‘s website suggest the new tolls will be enforced between 6am and 10pm.
They suggest motorcyclists would be charged up to £3, car drivers £4 and those using other vehicles up to £8.50.
Motorists would likely be charged for each crossing rather than return journeys, the reported – meaning some motorists making trips back and forth would pay £17 per day.
The charges are expected to be paid online, rather than at physical toll booths.
A spokesperson for the Stop The Silvertown Tunnel campaign group said: “The proposed new toll on the Blackwall tunnel brings no benefits at all.
“It is there only to remove the new extra traffic congestion, pollution and CO2 emissions that will be generated by the mayor’s own Silvertown tunnel.”
TfL insisted no decision on fees had yet been finalised, describing the figures on the signs as “placeholders” to illustrate the design layout.
A spokesperson for the transport authority said: “In order to obtain necessary approvals for the new road signage required for the Silvertown tunnel, a submission for the potential signs has been made to the Department for Transport.
DRIVERS HIT TWICE ALREADY
“No charges have been finalised yet and any times and costs within the submission are indicative to allow for approval to be obtained.
“The final charges will be made ahead of the Silvertown tunnel opening in 2025 once further modelling, including assessments on concessions, are completed.”
The mooted new fees would come on top of the £15 daily congestion charge to drive in central London – first introduced for Labour’s former London mayor Ken Livingstone at £5 in February 2003.
And Mr Khan last month extended across all of London’s 32 boroughs the much-criticised ultra-low emission zone.
That means £12.50 daily charges for anyone driving vehicles deemed too environmentally-unfriendly.
Opponents say it will harshly penalise poorer families unable to afford more modern cars which hit stricter emissions standards.
Tradesmen needing vans to carry supplies also face higher costs which would potentially be passed on to customers’ bills.
The Ulez was initially confined to central London when first introduced in April 2019.
It was then extended to all areas within the North Circular and South Circular roads in October 2021, covering 3.8million Londoners.
But now extra 5million people are living within the zone.
The £12.50 charges are most likely for pre-2015 diesels and pre-2006 petrol cars.
Anti-Ulez campaigners held a protest outside Mr Khan’s south London home last month, parking a slogan-bearing caravan.
And vigilantes have also been damaging Ulez cameras and vans carrying them.
Homeowners just outside the new borders say they’ve been offered £100 per month by motorists to park on their driveways.
