A landscape gardener has told how he faces being left massively out of pocket by the Ulez expansion due to problems with Sadiq Khan’s scrappage scheme.
He also rebuked Mr Khan, who publicly advised him to get his Ford van retro-fitted – something he says is impossible due to the van being too small to be converted. “He must think I’m stupid, or something,” Mr Flynn told the Standard.
He added: “I’m not going to be able to get a tonne of sand on the bus.”
His case was raised with Mr Khan at Mayor’s Question Time on Thursday by Andrew Boff, the Tory assembly member.
Mr Boff said Mr Flynn, a sole trader who runs the Ealing-based Flynn Landscapes, would not receive enough from the scrappage scheme to repay the loan on his van and afford to buy another vehicle.
“Even after getting the scrappage scheme grant he would still be left without a van,” Mr Boff told the mayor. “That is his livelihood. He is of the view, if this goes through, he is simply being put out of business.”
In reply, Mr Khan, who has set up a £110m scrappage fund for low income Londoners and small businesses, said: “I would suggest he gets the van retro-fitted.”
It came as Mr Khan hinted that an amnesty could be introduced for several weeks to prevent drivers who are “caught unaware” being fined.
About 50 per cent of vans registered to an address in the outer London Ulez expansion zone are non-compliant – meaning they are liable for the £12.50 a day levy.
Mr Flynn bought a diesel-powered Ford Transit Connect van – slightly smaller than a traditional Transit – in January 2022 for about £12,000.
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At the time, the Ulez had expanded several months earlier to the inner boundaries of the North and South Circulars but Mr Khan had not made public any plans to widen it across Greater London.
The Mayor announced the expansion plans in the summer of 2022 and confirmed in November last year that he would be pressing ahead with the expansion, setting a date of August 29 this year.
Mr Flynn said: “I was very upset when I heard about the Ulez extension. It meant I would have to find another van or have to pay £4,500 a year to drive my van around.
“I completely agree with the Ulez scheme and that we should clean up London’s air. I was very excited about the scrappage scheme.
“Unfortunately, in my circumstances, not one of them – the scrappage scheme, the scrap and replace or the retro-fit scheme, help my situation in any shape or form.”
He said the standard scrappage scheme, which offers £5,000 grants, would leave him with a £2,000 debt on the £7,000 he still owes to the finance company that he used to buy his van.
The scrap and replace scheme would provide up to £7,500 – meaning he had only £500 left to buy a new vehicle.
He said the retro-fit option was not feasible as the van had insufficient space to fit a device to ensure it met the Ulez exhaust emission rules.
“Retro-fitting only works on vans above a certain size,” he said. “As it stands, it looks like I will be paying £4,500 a year to drive my van. I drive it everywhere for work.
“My main problem with all of this is the lack of time between the Mayor’s announcement and the imposition – it’s absolutely disgraceful. If he had given us two years I would have been able to sort out my own finances.
“At the moment it looks like I will be going further and further into financial difficulty.”
