Below is the motion Redbridge Conservatives lodged at Council on 25th November 2021.
Redbridge Labour voted against our motion which supported disabled drivers having to pay ULEZ at £12.50 per day.
Proposed by Cllr Linda Huggett
Seconded by Cllr Suzanne Nolan
With less than 30% of London’s tube stations accessible with step-free access, London’s inaccessible public transport system means that many disabled people have no choice but to drive.
Kaleidoscope Group, a platform working to empower disability through business, is leading a campaign fighting for fair ULEZ exemption on behalf of a quarter of a million disabled people with blue badges in London. The campaign has already received support from Action Disability Kensington and Chelsea, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the MP for Kensington, multiple London Assembly Members, Disability Rights UK and Inclusion London.
At the moment blue badge holders are exempt from the Congestion Charge Zone, but there is no similar exemption for disabled people inside ULEZ. Only cars registered to disabled people will be exempt. Carers, family members or friends taking a disabled person shopping or to an NHS appointment have to pay £12.50 each time they enter the zone if they cannot afford to drive a vehicle which is ULEZ compliant. The three-year exemption for blue badges only applies to those with a vehicle tax exemption. This decision has also been made during the COVID 19 pandemic when disabled people have already been significantly impacted.
Labour putting in new financial barriers that reduce access to care and support for disabled people, on top of the failed LTN road closures, punishes vulnerable people a second time.
The needs of disabled people have not been considered by the powerful Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Labour Administration running Redbridge Council. Access to social care, and help and support for disabled people, is critical for the health and wellbeing of our disabled residents. As the Chief Disability Officer at Kaleidoscope Group Kush Kanodia says, failing to help disabled people travel through ULEZ will mean ‘more inequality, more deprivation and… more people suffering unnecessarily.’
Redbridge Council therefore resolves to:
- Lobby the Mayor of London and TFL to ensure that disabled people with blue badges get the same reasonable adjustments provided for ULEZ as for the Congestion Charging Zone; and
- Draw attention to the inequalities of ULEZ on disabled residents, including but not limited to Council publicity, videos and communications, and publicise the campaign by Kaleidoscope Group to end ULEZ discrimination against disabled people by the Labour Mayor of London and Redbridge Labour councillors.
