Mum on maternity leave says ULEZ expansion could force her to …

A first time mum with a nine-week-old baby says she has been forced to sell her ULEZ compliant car because she can no longer afford to pay the finance on it after going on maternity leave. Chloe Blackburn has seen her income halve after the birth of her baby and she’s concerned she won’t be able to afford to return to work because the only other car she has access to is a diesel which will incur the GBP12.50 daily charge when the ULEZ expansion [1] takes place in August. The 21-year-old lives in Thundersely, Essex, but works in Edmonton,[2] East London, and due to a lack of fast transport links, she faces a two-hour commute without a car when she returns to work.

Chloe says that the ULEZ charge is another barrier to getting women into work and women back from maternity leave. She said: “It’s another barrier for getting women in work, there is currently crisis in childcare and lot of nurseries are struggling and the current grants are not enough. They want women to go back to work but they are not really helping us to go back to work.”

Chloe has been in her job since 2018 and once back from maternity leave she has to decide whether to deal with the two-hour commute by public transport, pay the GBP12.50 charge to drive or somehow find the money for a new compliant car. Chloe said: “It’s a 40-mile drive from work back home and I work unsociable hours and sometimes I can’t get public transport. If you work anywhere on the North Circular around the A406 it’s really difficult to get public transport.

There’s a very bad issue with public transport in that area. If he [the Mayor] wants people to use public transport to come into London then it has to be better.” Whilst Chloe’s job, working on London’s transport network under TfL, allows her to have free Oyster use in London, travelling in from outside of London using public transport would not only be difficult but would add a significant burden to her overall income.

According to Chloe if she commuted, her journey would include getting the bus to the train station nearest her, then a train to Barking, then the London Overground [4], then the Underground and then a 30-minute bus journey followed by a 15-minute walk to get to work.

MyLondon transport editor Callum Marius recently took a ride on the Superloop from Northolt to Hendon, which aims to better connect the city’s outer boroughs (Image: Callum Marius)

The Mayor of London’s office has said that Sadiq Khan [5] is “overseeing an expansion of bus services in outer London, including the Superloop which will serve Edmonton”, but this would only cover a fraction of the journey Chloe would need to make. The Mayor’s office has also said they have launched a GBP110 million scrappage scheme, giving people money towards a new compliant car by scrapping non-compliant cars, but has called on national Government support for those impacted by ULEZ. Chloe says that being on maternity leave has been difficult because of the loss of income but also because of her constant worry about whether she will be able to return to work.

She said: “It’s really difficult – I’m waiting for my child benefit to come through but that’s only GBP80 a month and only GBP20 a week. The hard thing is I’m due back in August [this is when the ULEZ expansion will commence] and I have to pay for childcare five times a week and now because I don’t have a compliant car I’ll have to pay ULEZ charges daily too.

A ULEZ sign in North Sheen, west London Drivers of non-compliant vehicles will have to pay a GBP12.50 daily fee to drive within the enlarged ULEZ (Image: Facundo Arrizabalaga)

“The cost of living has gone up but my wage hasn’t gone up. It’s stressful [being on maternity leave] and it shouldn’t be that way.

The ULEZ is just an extra cost on top of everything right now, I’m already getting anxious and stressed about everything and I’m not due back for another four months.” She added that she may be forced to leave her current job and find a part-time job outside of London, but she’s worked hard in her career to get to where she has. Chloe said the ULEZ expansion needs to be debated in Parliament and given more mainstream attention.

She said: “We know there is a lot of protest and demonstrations [against ULEZ] and if I didn’t have a baby I would be at every demonstration.” Chloe has accused the Mayor of London of “not caring” about Londoners or those impacted by ULEZ. “He needs to think about what he is doing – this doesn’t affect the people who are well off, it affects people who are working class. If you are a millionaire and you have a Range Rover you can go to London and afford it but for me to go to work I have to pay a daily charge and it’s unaffordable.”

‘London’s toxic air’

Christina Calderato, TfL’s Director of Strategy and Policy, said: “The London-wide ULEZ is vital in tackling the triple threats of air pollution, the climate emergency and congestion, and will ensure millions more people can breathe cleaner air.

Those outside the London boundary will also benefit, with drivers outside of the capital shifting to cleaner vehicles that meet the standards. We are already seeing 90 per cent of cars across outer London on an average day complying with the standards and expect this to be even higher when the scheme goes live. “In order to support people on lower incomes in replacing their older, more polluting vehicles with greener options, the Mayor launched London’s biggest ever scrappage scheme worth GBP110m.

Petrol cars up to 18 years old are compliant with the standards. The aim of the ULEZ is to help encourage people to make sustainable travel choices where possible.” A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor is doing all he can to support Londoners through the cost of living crisis but, with lives on the line and the health of children at risk due to London’s toxic air, he is clear that expanding the clean air zone was a difficult decision but a necessary one.

“The latest data from Transport for London [6] shows 90 per cent of cars driving in outer London already meet ULEZ standards and the Mayor expects the number of compliant vehicles to go up even more over the coming months. He is also overseeing an expansion of bus services in outer London, including the Superloop which will serve Edmonton. For drivers of the few non-compliant vehicles, Sadiq has launched the biggest scrappage scheme ever – GBP110m – to help families on lower incomes, small businesses, charities, sole traders and disabled Londoners replace their vehicle with a less polluting one or move to a cleaner, more active mode of transport.

“But we are using limited funding to provide a scheme that should be funded at a national level and the Mayor continues to call on Government to now support the switch to cleaner vehicles through funding a targeted national scrappage scheme or providing additional funding to London, as it has done for other cities implementing Clean Air Zones like Birmingham, Bristol and Portsmouth.” Do you have an inspiring story linked to race, religion or diversity? Get in touch at [email protected][7].

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References

^ ULEZ expansion (www.mylondon.news)
^ Edmonton, (www.mylondon.news)
^ South London market trader says people ‘can’t even afford the bus fare’ so business has ‘gone downhill’ (www.mylondon.news)
^ London Overground (www.mylondon.news)
^ Sadiq Khan (www.mylondon.news)
^ Transport for London (www.mylondon.news)
^ [email protected] (www.mylondon.news)
^ HERE (data.reachplc.com)