Ulez scrappage scheme that sends cars to Ukraine should be extended across the UK, ambassador says
The Ulez scrappage scheme that sends used cars to Ukraine should be extended across the UK, the country’s ambassador has said.
Transport for London’s Ulez scrappage scheme offers £2,000 grants to owners of polluting older cars who hand them in for scrap. People can tick a box saying they want their old car donated to Ukraine when applying for the grant.
Around 300 unwanted vehicles have been sent to Ukraine through the scheme since it opened in March.
Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, making his first public appearance as Ukraine’s ambassador, called for the scheme to be extended to “all cities of the United Kingdom”.
Gen Zaluzhnyi, who was head of the Ukrainian armed forces until February this year, praised the Ulez scrappage donation scheme in a speech at the Ukrainian embassy in London on Thursday morning.
“I call on everyone who has the opportunity to donate their car using the Ulez programme,” he said. “This aid underlines the incredible power of solidarity and community. [Through] these efforts you are helping us fight this war and giving us hope for the future – a better future.”
“Expanding this programme to all cities of the United Kingdom would not only be a unique way of caring for the environment, and the future generations, but also its significant contribution to Ukraine’s fight for our independence and territorial integrity.”
Ten British cities currently operate a so-called clean air zone similar to Ulez, including Bath, Birmingham and Sheffield, which ban or heavily tax older cars, vans and minibuses, but London’s is the only one with a donation scheme to Ukraine.
Seb Dance, London’s deputy mayor for transport, told The Telegraph he was proud of the success of the scrappage scheme, adding: “There are many, many different barriers that have been faced by British Ukrainian Aid, and others in getting the scheme to work.”
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, had attempted to block the cars-to-Ukraine scheme, claiming it would be illegal. However, the then-transport secretary Mark Harper said the Government does “not consider there to be any legal barrier to allowing vehicles to be donated to Ukraine.”
When asked why Mr Khan had not attended Thursday’s event, Mr Dance said the mayor was at a launch event for a report about the success of the Ulez expansion last summer.
City Hall claimed the Ulez expansion achieved “significant” reductions in air pollution levels across the capital, although the Conservatives said these were exaggerated.
Some volunteers involved in driving British vehicles to Ukraine condemned Mr Khan for not attending Thursday’s event, which saw a convoy of 50 donated cars, vans and even a red London bus setting off for Ukraine.
Richard Lofthouse, a volunteer with the Car for Ukraine group, said the mayor’s absence was “disappointing”.
“Around the official numbers of Ulez donations, there are many more unofficial donations that Car for Ukraine has been receiving,” he said, speaking from behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayenne and describing it as “a classic instance of a very strong SUV that is far more capable off-road than most people realise.”