Mayor launches low emission zone

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Operators of heavy lorries that fail to meet low emission targets are now being charged £200 to drive into Greater London.

The capital's low emission zone (LEZ) is aimed at cutting harmful pollution, which makes London one of the most polluted capitals in Western Europe.

Covering most of Greater London - unlike the £8 daily congestion charge, which only applies to the centre - the LEZ targets all diesel-engined lorries weighing more than 12 tonnes.

Transport for London said there are 23,000 heavy lorries driving into the capital each day and 2,500 do not currently meet the required standard. And it warned that the emission standards would be extended to other vehicles in July, including goods vehicles, buses, coaches and motor caravans weighing more than three-and-a-half tonnes.

Environmentalists and health campaigners support the scheme but some business leaders are furious.

Speaking at Alexandra Palace, Mr Livingstone said: "We are probably the most polluted city in the whole of western Europe. Even on a good day you can still see the scale of pollution as you look through the atmosphere over London.

"We've become the first city in the world to have a low emission zone on this scale. This is the start of the process of gradually improving on vehicle emission standards year by year so that by 2012 when the final stage of inclusion comes with smaller vehicles like vans and mini-buses we will be in a position where our air quality is transformed."

Mr Livingstone said it was better for hauliers to pay the price than for Londoners to suffer the health consequences of pollution. He said one in 10 people in the capital lived in areas where polluting particles which contribute to asthma and cancer were "well above recommended safety guidelines" but the new measures would help to reduce that number to one in 100 by 2012.

He also said 1.25 million Londoners were living in parts of the capital where levels of nitrous oxide were too high and the zone would help to cut this to 400,000.