Can you feel it? There's something different in the London air. Stand outside, take a deep breath and inhale. Mmmm, the atmosphere in the capital is suddenly crystal clear and spring fresh. Our oxygen is no longer tainted with quite so many nasty black sooty particles. The daily lives of children, pensioners and asthmatics are being transformed for the better. Our nostrils have entered a brave new pollution-free world. And we have the London LEZ to thank.
If you don't live round the edge of London you may not have noticed, but as of Monday the entire capital is now encircled by a protective barrier of roadsigns. These environmental sentinels have been set up to repel unwanted polluting vehicles, sending them back to contaminate the Home Counties instead. For at the sign of the Big Green Circle, no diesel-engined belcher may pass. The new Low Emission Zone is our last defence against airborne particulate poisoning. Bugger off all ye heavy diesel-engined vehicles exceeding 12 tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight, including goods vehicles, motor caravans, motorised horseboxes and other specialist vehicles, and do not darken our roads again.
Well that's the plan anyway. And it's cutting-edge stuff. Cameras within the LEZ are already keeping their beady lenses open for unregistered numberplates, and if the TfL database doesn't have your lorry registered then you get fined. Don't worry, they waive the charge the first time they catch you, and all you get is a warning letter. But then it's £200, per day, which is quite a lot compared to the piddly insignificant Congestion Charge. A large enough fine to persuade any violating business to take its fleet off the road, or to clean up its act.
So look, I thought I ought to warn you. Do you have a motorised horsebox that you drive around the North Circular? Or a gritter or a dustcart or a concrete mixer that you ride around on in your spare time? Or maybe a removal lorry or a fire engine that you buff up and drive to IKEA on a Saturday afternoon? Or a minibus that you use to drive old ladies to church on a Sunday morning? Or a Routemaster bus or a vintage coach that didn't have to satisfy pollution requirements back in 1958? Or an ambulance that your charity has bought using hard-earned donations that now needs a ridiculously expensive refit just so that it can carry on doing the good works that last week were perfectly legal? Or a hearse? Travelling around London could be about to get extremely expensive.
Certain vehicles aren't going to be penalised until July this year, or until 2010, or even 2012. And cars and motorbikes, they're not going to be penalised at all. It's only the big belching polluters that are going to have to pay. And hey, it's all for the sake of London's lungs so it's got to be a good thing surely? Just so long as this isn't yet another fund-raising exercise by our environmentally-caring Mayor. Another wheeze that leaves drivers' finances exhausted... even if the rest of us are never exhaust-ed again.
If you don't live round the edge of London you may not have noticed, but as of Monday the entire capital is now encircled by a protective barrier of roadsigns. These environmental sentinels have been set up to repel unwanted polluting vehicles, sending them back to contaminate the Home Counties instead. For at the sign of the Big Green Circle, no diesel-engined belcher may pass. The new Low Emission Zone is our last defence against airborne particulate poisoning. Bugger off all ye heavy diesel-engined vehicles exceeding 12 tonnes Gross Vehicle Weight, including goods vehicles, motor caravans, motorised horseboxes and other specialist vehicles, and do not darken our roads again.
