Ultra Low Emission Parking makes no concessions for older vehicles parking in city centres – we look into the implications of this worrying development
It has been revealed that local councils are quietly introducing Ultra Low Emission Parking zones (ULEP) that charge drivers of older cars and diesels more to park.
Bath was one of the first cities to increase the cost of parking a car in carparks and on the side of the road in ULEP areas in September as a means of reducing CO2 emissions through variable parking fees. However more councils around the UK are adopting the scheme, which can increase the price of parking an older vehicle by as much as 50 per cent.
The parking scheme was made possible after the DVLA produced a Vehicle Enquiry Service that app developers can use to check emissions standards, opening the door to ULEP charging.
The Federation of Historic British Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) has been in consultation with Bath and North East Somerset Council over the matter. Lindsay Irvine said: ‘There is no way of dressing it up –we did not succeed in our submissions to Bath and North East Somerset Council on this topic.
I indicated that in response to their consultation on differential parking charges based on emissions (or engine capacity for pre-2001 light vehicles), we requested (with supporting arguments) that they charge Historic Vehicles (HVs) at a uniform rate and at the lower end of the charging spectrum rather than as proposed. Unsurprisingly it has to be said that our arguments, together with others who had responded on HVs, were not accepted.
‘The Council's response was as follows: ‘Historic vehicles are not provided with concessions within these proposals as the council does not have access to the required data sets. Additionally, whilst we note that typically some historic vehicles may not travel significant distances, these proposals are not concerned with how much pollution a vehicle emits over a year, but how much pollution they emit whilst being used, and particularly when they are being used within the city centre of Bath. Of course, where vehicles are used less frequently, they may be impacted by less by these proposals as there will be less need to pay for parking in council car pa
