Merton Conservatives are proud of our record of standing up for Merton residents. We have been consistent in fighting to stop the ULEZ expansion to Merton.
The ULEZ expansion to Merton was first proposed by the Liberal Democrats at the February 2019 council meeting. During this meeting, the Liberal Democrat Leader spoke in favour of ULEZ saying: “we are suggesting an emissions-based charging scheme.”
In February 2022, we put forward a motion calling for the council to write to the Mayor of London to request that the ULEZ expansion to Merton be abandoned. The Liberal Democrats insulted our motion before voting with the Conservatives.
In July 2022, we amended Labour’s Cost-of-Living motion to call for the ULEZ expansion to be scrapped and for the GLA precept to be frozen for the 2023/24 financial year. The Liberal Democrats did not support our amendment and Lib Dem Councillor Jil Hall called our amendment to scrap the ULEZ expansion and freeze the precept “shameful”.
In November 2022, both Liberal Democrat members of the London Assembly voted in favour of expanding the ULEZ to Merton, with West Barnes Councillor Bokhari being one of the two Liberal Democrats to vote it through.
In February 2023, we put forward a motion calling for the ULEZ consultation to be rerun, as the Mayor of London has manipulated the consultation, as well as for the ULEZ expansion to be halted and for the installation of the ULEZ infrastructure to be refused. The Liberal Democrats amended our motion.
They removed all mention of rerunning the consultation, of preventing ULEZ infrastructure from being installed and of investigating the conduct of Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan. Their actions prevented scrutiny of the Labour Mayor of London and allowed the views of Merton residents to be ignored by the Labour group.
We have also asked questions on the ULEZ expansion which the Labour administration have refused to answer. In contrast, the Liberal Democrats have not bothered to ask a single question on the ULEZ expansion.
We are proud of our record of action to stand up for residents. Ever since Merton Liberal Democrats first proposed the idea in 2019, both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have taken every opportunity to water down Conservative proposals to stand up for residents and have even acted to stop criticism of Mayor Khan.
Only one conclusion can be drawn from the actions of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, they just don’t care about the damage their ULEZ proposals will cause to residents in Merton, and they cannot be trusted to stand up for our borough.
You can sign the petition against ULEZ here.
