10 November (Part 1) - Labour’s case for ULEZ
The problem with
not being in the Council Chamber when a party comes up with
an Amendment to a Motion is that you don’t get to see what it is and Councillor Borella began by agreeing with me that the Council’s Motions procedures do not work properly.
He
noted that a year after the introduction of ULEZ "the world hasn’t ended and
the Mayor has a mandate to do this policy". He said that some of its local supporters were “cranks”.
“People will adapt and change and that is what Bexley residents have done. Air
pollution has a negative impact on the health of London and it is a silent killer
and residents have to deal with it every day. I am happy that I am on the side
of the Mayor. I have not owned a car for 16 years and managed perfectly alright.”
“Today I have used the SL3 bus and the Elizabeth line introduced by a Labour
Government and Mayor. We should be proud of those transport improvements and we
will be fighting for the DLR to come to Belvedere. The electric buses referred
to by Cameron Smith, the 132, were introduced by a Labour Mayor and the previous Mayor did not do anything about that.”
[Google says the first fully electric buses were introduced to London in August 2013.]
The party opposite spent £147,000 on fighting the Mayor in Court which led to a
legal overspend which was “appalling”.
“The Blade Runners have committed criminal acts on infrastructure including
Council infrastructure and Members opposite did nothing to condemn that action.”
[The Conservatives mumbled their dissent.]
“Maybe you have forgotten but it was Mayor Johnson’s proposal to charge at
Blackwall. Our Amendment is a sensible Amendment which reflects what ULEZ is
about, It is about air quality and we will not be voting for this politically motivated stuff.
This borough fails people who walk and cycle.”
The Amendment was seconded by Councillor
Jeremy Fosten (Labour, Belvedere) and any
friends and family who may have been watching his debut from home will have been
disappointed. Bexley’s webcams have been broken for several years and no longer
reliably focus on the Councillor speaking. True to form they focused on Sally
Hinkley, Nicola Taylor and Baljeet Gill and missed Jeremy by several feet.
Councillor Fosten began by apologetically referring back to
the petition he organised in 2019 when Bexley Council decided that an ugly
fence should enclose Shoulder of Mutton Green “but this Motion and Amendment is
more important than that. It is important that residents know where the Council
stands, however residents already know where the Council stands, We spent
£150,000 on a Judicial Review that failed. ULEZ is the only policy that has been
plastered on Tory leaflets for the past year. It is well documented how Bexley
Council and the Conservative Party stands.”
“This Motion is a waste of time because there are many other issues we could be
talking about tonight including some the Council might be able to fix. Arson and
vehicle thefts are increasing in Belvedere because the Council is too cheap to
install CCTV. Fly tipping is rife yet the obsession is with reporting it and not tackling the problem.”
“Despite how necessary CPZs might be [in Belvedere] you cannot come here
consulting on the necessity to charge residents £130 a year and then peddle
conspiracies about further charges to road users. Where is your Motion on that?
You come here to pass a cheap political whim instead of getting on with the job
of helping residents. The Council would do well to step outside of its glass house.”
“Air quality is worse than you think it is. I am an asthmatic and before I went
to university I used to use my inhaler only once or twice a Winter but now I
have to use it often and my doctor has had to increase the dosage.” {The
Conservatives did not fail to see a possible flaw in this argument.]
“I would prefer the Motion was a little less combative. Instead of trashing the
whole scheme let’s work together and support who ULEZ genuinely affects but
Conservatives shout from the sidelines about how much they dislike the Mayor,
the goal being to remain in power in 2026 but here they are being the loudest in
the room and the furthest away from supporting residents.”
Councillor Anna Day (Labour, Slade Green) said ULEZ has been “a success and on
this side we are looking for a cleaner greener fairer future. Air pollution leads to premature death”.
Because of time pressures caused by the Adjournment the Mayor allowed only one
Conservative speaker. Councillor Cameron Smith said he would not accept the Amendment. He agreed with
Councillor Fosten that “residents know where Bexley Council stands but the question is where do you?”
Inevitably the Amendment was formally rejected.
Note: The foregoing monologues lasted about 13 minutes and the
extensive quotations reported here are much abbreviated. As written they do
not always seem logical to me. For this reason readers may judge for themselves
by listening to the original audio.