Greater London, running a retro will cost from August 2023

Everything you need to know about freedom in this country can be learned from the Battle Of The Beanfield. Which reminds me I meant to start a "Travellers Buses" thread after the "dogs on string" conversation at Weekender.

Everything you need to know about freedom in this country can be learned from the Battle Of The Beanfield. Which reminds me I meant to start a "Travellers Buses" thread after the "dogs on string" conversation at Weekender.

As a garage owner in Sheffield city centre this is a massive hit to small businesses. I personally do a fair few tradies vans, people who have money but not enough for overly inflated Euro6-spec vans so this is a potential loss of trade. The council claim to have "options in place" to help businesses, but in reality you only get anywhere with this if you are in contact with the council from a large company that can afford such options. Many small companies in the area where my business is are simply feeling like we're of no importance despite our business rates payments. Some of Sheffield's last remaining historically important firms and trades may fall by the wayside as a result.

The other issue I have with the plans are that in Sheffield we don't have the road infrastructure to support these grand plans. Anywhere outside the ring-road is heavily residential and already used as rat-runs due to other idiotic road-closure schemes the council recently introduced, so I'm guessing the air-quality is going to plummet in those areas as more traffic is forced to divert through them to avoid charges. Saying that, air quality follows wind direction, but try telling that to a councillor who has never worked a hard days graft in their lives, let alone in hard-labour trades.

I have my own views on "green transport", all I'm going to say is that hopefully a test can be designed to certify older cars to the relevant standards if possible. I'd love to see how many of the Euro6 cars would fair what with all the DPF/EGR/AdBlue delete carp flying around these days.

Working from home may be fine for some but many abuse it. Theres more too it than the price of offices. If the government cared about thier declining value they would be chaging planning law to get empty offices converted to housing that's where the money is.

I recently moved away from the area in kent where this is coming into force……but how much further do we have to move out before they move the goalposts again??
I’m London Born and bred but I won’t be going anywhere near the place now ,I feel for the people who now have no choice but to either pay up or sell there current car/van

It is all about money. If they need more money they will make the zone bigger or change what emissions standard is acceptable to raise revenue. So far my closest area to charge is Birmingham which I did go into a fair bit years ago but it was never somewhere I went through choice but I have not been since the charges came in, and that’s with me having an exempt car as well.
These days I can only think of city Powder Coaters as a place I might need to go which is inside the zone, I wonder if their trade is down since the ULEZ came in? To be fair I do have a couple of compliant cars at my disposal if I needed to go but my daily is not on the allowed list for Birmingham but is OK everywhere else according to the checker.
If you live by a zone and the same council are running the zone and where you live it will probably effect you sooner or later.

It has effected them re. City Powdercoaters. They are about 40% down from where they were. Some folks like me, have just stopped using them however.

I never recollect Brum being quiet. I lived around the area for years in my youth, and frankly, it was always busy. That’s going back almost 30 years ago now. On the roads leading up, like Soho Road, it would take an age to get up. Some rather rose tinted views here.

Leamington and Warwick are worse than they use to be.

As @akku said, like it or hate it, the pollution levels did come down alot with Covid

Unfortunately, City Powdercoaters will be seen as a dirty, medieval business these days and them being forced to close or relocate won't be seen as a loss to the council, who will undoubtedly sign off on another tower block full of £500k apartments for 'urban living'. I use Redditch Shot Blasting and Coating now as it doesn't cost me £8 to visit them.

Birmingham city centre is hell to drive through now compared to how it was 15 years ago. When I was at Uni there I used to drive into the centre all the time. Now, everytime I go its a mission just to work out exactly which roads I'm allowed to use, not being a taxi or a bus, and the traffic is a lot worse IMO.

I wouldn't mind so much if there was somewhere secure to park outside and walk in, but there isn't anywhere I'd be confident the wheels would still be on my car when I got back to it!