London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) fine hotspots were revealed today – with cars registered in Enfield receiving the most penalty charges of any borough by far.
Mayor Sadiq Khan made his zone almost four times larger by covering all of Greater London in August last year, creating the world’s biggest pollution charging region.
He dragged all of the capital’s outer boroughs into the area – with 988,485 penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued in the first year of the expanded area, until this July.
Some 80,023 of these were in Enfield, while Croydon was in second place at 57,055, Hillingdon in third at 52,561, and Barking and Dagenham in fourth at 52,186.
The other boroughs in the top ten were Haringey (50,327), Brent (47,020), Redbridge (46,798), Newham (46,077), Barnet (38,405) and Waltham Forest (37,912).
The total value of the fines handed by Transport to London (TfL) to motorists with cars registered in the capital at the point of issue was £177.9million, given that its PCNs are £180 each, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.
If a car does not meet Ulez standards and does not have an exemption, it will be charged £12.50 upon entering the zone within Greater London each day.
This fee must be paid by midnight on the third day following a journey.
If not, the driver then has to pay a £90 fine within 14 days. If this is not paid, the fine goes up to £180 within 28 days
Ignoring this leads to the sum rising to £270. TfL issues a charge certificate, followed by an order for recovery.
At least three notices are issued before a warrant is sent by TfL to enforcement agents, who then send at least two letters before visiting a property or removing a vehicle.
The data, released by TfL under the Freedom of Information Act, also revealed there were 58,289 vehicles registered within London incurring PCNs – meaning each vehicle received an average of 17 fines each.
In addition, there were 673,867 warrants issued to recover outstanding after non-payment, covering 24,220 different vehicles.
For petrol cars to meet Ulez standards – based on emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter – they must generally have been first registered after 2005.
Most diesel cars registered after September 2015 are also exempt from the charge.
Drivers who enter the zone in a non-compliant vehicle are required to pay a £12.50 daily fee unless they are exempt, such as taxis or transport for disabled people.
Failing to pay the charge by midnight on the third day following a journey risks incurring a fine.
TfL initially sent warning letters to vehicle owners for non-payment following Ulez expansion on August 29 last year, but began issuing PCNs about a month later on September 26.
The recipient of a PCN has 28 days to pay at the full rate of £180 if they don’t pay £90 within 14 days – and can also challenge the penalty.
Mayor Sadiq Khan made the Ulez almost four times larger by expanding it in August last year
But ignoring the PCN leads to the sum increasing to £270, and eventually TfL can apply for a court-issued warrant to take action to recover debts, such as using bailiffs.
TfL will issue a charge certificate, followed by an order for recovery. At least three notices are issued before a warrant is sent to a team of enforcement agents.
These agents then send at least two letters before visiting a property or removing a vehicle.
In addition, when a fine issued, it is sent to the registered keeper of the vehicle as held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
This does not always mean the driver lives at that address – given that a vehicle may be registered to a hire company in a certain borough, but the driver lives in a different area.
In October, TfL in a separate data release that more than of 1,429 vehicles were seized by bailiffs within the same 12-month period for non-payment of Ulez.
Some 761 were auctioned, recovering £710,000 of debts accrued by drivers refusing to pay the Ulez charge. TfL said £25.6million of debt was recouped over 12 months.
It gave examples of a driver with 45 warrants against them settling a balance of nearly £16,000 in July after being traced to a new address, and another with 21 warrants making payments of more than £7,800.
The organisation also said at the time it was tripling the size of its investigations team to boost its work with enforcement agents.
An anti-Ulez Facebook group with more than 45,000 members urges people to refuse to pay Ulez PCNs, and praises vandalism of the scheme’s enforcement cameras.
But TfL has insisted income generated by Ulez is invested into public transport, such as improving bus routes in outer London, with Mr Khan previously saying its expansion was vital to tackle air pollution.
In September, analysis of separate TfL data showed drivers had been handed more than £322million in fines for non-payment of Ulez fees since the scheme expanded.
The body also received approximately £176million from drivers who did pay Ulez fees over the same period.
Separately a further set of figures released in the autumn showed TfL’s income from fining drivers using major ‘red route’ roads in the capital had soared by 57 per cent in the last five years to £89.3million.
Motoring organisation the AA attributed the rise to the increased use of new and more sophisticated CCTV cameras, and TfL’s decision in January 2022 to uplift the value of PCNs from £130 to £160.
The authority issues PCNs for violations on red routes involving bus lanes, yellow box junctions, banned turns, stopping and parking, often relying on evidence from CCTV cameras.
This is how many penalty notices were issued by TfL for Ulez non-payment across all motorists
A TfL spokesman told : ‘Data shows that more than 96 per cent of all vehicles recorded driving in the zone are now compliant, with a 53 per cent reduction in non-compliant vehicles driving on an average day in the first six months of the Ulez expansion compared to June 2023.
‘Only 0.27 per cent of vehicles driving in the zone receive a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN).
‘Any income generated from the scheme is being reinvested back into public transport, including improving bus routes in outer London.
‘The expanded Ulez will lead to cleaner air while generating ever smaller net revenues, as has been the case with the previous expansion to inner London where people switched to greener vehicles.’