Action against Ulez: Disgruntled driver invests £500 to show opposition to London’s clean air zone

Ross Carnague-Winchcombe says it was the best £500 he had ever spent

Ross Carnague-Winchcombe’s registration plate on his vehicle (Ross Carnague-Winchcombe / SWNS)

A disgruntled driver has had his say on Ulez with a £500 number plate - which reads ‘NO 02 ULZ’.

Ross Carnague-Winchcombe, 41, knows the personalised plate is ‘illegal’ - but doesn’t care.

He says he’s so annoyed by the London clean air charge he’s sticking it on his Fiat 500 in protest.

Ross, from Tiddington, Oxfordshire, said: “The number plate is spaced illegally to appear to say NO 02 ULZ.

“I’m sure the police will dislike it.”

Ross is a funeral director and regularly works in London.

He says he is now having to pass the extra Ulez cost - £12.50 a day - onto bereaved families.

Ross claims he tried to get funereal vehicles exempt but had no luck.

He said: “Having a business in London is hard enough with the price of everything going up.

“We are a small family-run funeral directors with three shops, two hearses and two limousines - all of which are modern but non-compliant.

“[Sadiq] Khan offered a £9,000 scrappage allowance for each vehicle.

“To replace all four would be approximately £360,000 -10 times more than was being offered.

“These costs will have to be passed on to our families, a lot of which are struggling to cope with the situation they are in as well as the cost of living crisis we find ourselves in.”

“I contacted TfL about making funeral vehicles exempt from the charge, suggesting that at least the hearse was exempt.

“But sadly they weren’t interested.”

Ross posted about his new number plate on Facebook - calling it the “best £500 I’ve spent”.

It’s currently on his Volkswagen Amarok but will soon be transferred to his Fiat 500 - which is Ulez-compliant.

Ross said: “The compliance for the Fiat was luck, not judgement.

“The Fiat currently has my mother-in-law’s private plate on, which she would like back.

“So we decided to buy this to show everyone what we think about Khan’s decision.”

The Ulez zone expanded on August 29 to encompass wider London boroughs.

The move has been met with fierce criticism and even vigilantism in some parts of the capital.

So-called ‘Blade Runners’ have taken to vandalising cameras to make them inoperable.