London to ban vehicles with worst pollution

Highly polluting lorries, vans, buses and taxis are to be banned from the whole of London under plans drawn up by the Mayor Ken Livingstone.

The Mayor of London will back proposals today for a so-called Low Emission Zone when he publishes his Air Quality Strategy for the capital.

The strategy is intended to cut the 1,600 premature deaths caused every year in London by air pollution, chiefly particulates and nitrous oxides found in exhaust fumes.

The new zone, which will cover the whole of the Greater London area, would ban vehicles that fail to meet stringent new European standards on emissions. Its targets would be older HGVs, buses, coaches, vans and taxis that produce the most pollutants.

Although some versions of the plan include a ban on high-polluting cars, the mayor's strategy claims such a move would be too expensive and would hit the poor hardest as they own the oldest vehicles.

He will publish research showing that 66 per cent of Londoners believe pollution affects their quality of life. But the proposals to ban older lorries and taxis could trigger stiff opposition from the freight and taxi industries.

Perhaps most opposition would come from van drivers, many of whom are self- employed and who are already complaining about the mayor's £5 daily congestion charge scheduled for next year.

The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) would be introduced in the spring of 2006. The zones have been pioneered in Sweden but the London LEZ would be the first of its kind in Britain. The Air Quality Strategy report says: "In order to work towards achieving national air quality objectives in London, an LEZ covering the whole of Greater London would be needed."

Mr Livingstone will declare that, 50 years after the first legislation to tackle London's smogs, radical action is needed to prevent similar problems.