‘Our council has failed to prepare for ULEZ’-Havering’s missed chance to support residents.

St Edwards Ward Councillor David Taylor writes his monthly Taylor Talks column in the Havering Daily. This month he tackles the introduction of the Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion across Havering.

There’s a myth going around, that Havering would have had to make cuts of £300k if they followed the Conservatives plan to fight ULEZ. 

It’s far from the truth, under the budget amendment I put forward we found the money by cutting top-executives and politician’s pay, putting our residents as the priority.

Havering Council missed a chance to support residents. 

Us Conservatives are in opposition here in Havering, after Labour joined the HRA to run the council. This means that we don’t set the budget and decide where the money is being spent. We do, however, get to put forward proposals to change the budget proposed by the administration. 

This is exactly what happened at the start of the year. Conservatives sat down with Havering Council’s finance teamand we drafted an alternative. The proposal delivered a balanced budget, it didn’t cut services, it did provide £300k to fight ULEZ. 

We achieved this by doing something that I think Conservatives should do. We put the taxpayers above politicians and top executives. We put forward a system that paid the top-councillors based on whether they turn up at meetings and we reduced the number of highly paid Directors in Havering Council. 

Our first proposal, with the £300k we found, was that it be used to fund Havering’s contribution to the legal fight against ULEZ. Our Council Leader, HRA, seems to be cheering that we didn’t fight “we didn’t waste money” he says. But, I think the people wanted us to fight.

However, before proposing the fund I spoke to Council Leaders in the Boroughs who were fighting. They informed me that we may had been too late to join. So, we put forward a second use for the money. That it be used to support the residents of Havering in meeting the cost of ULEZ. 

The Council Leader gloats that the legal advice was the court case would fail. It is, therefore, only right to presume he fully expected ULEZ to be implemented. 

If he thought ULEZ was coming, then our Council Leader failed to prepare. 

We’ve recently been told that ULEZ will cost the council up to £100k a year in fines for council vehicles. There was no provision for this in the administration’s budget. So, they will have to cut something to meet that. 

That’s irresponsible planning and it will hurt residents. It means another increase in our council taxes, to cover fines that the Leader fully expected to be paying.

This is why Conservatives proposed that, if we cannot join the legal action, we set up a Havering ULEZ fund. 

Our proposal was a scheme to top-up the scrappage contribution for those hardest hits, such as NHS workers and charities. We proposed financial support for small businesses. The Mayor of London’s scrappage scheme is nowhere near enough, Havering could have done something to help. It may have been small, but to those hardest hit every little helps. 

What we have here is a stark contrast in priorities. 

Conservatives, real Conservatives who believe taxpayer’s money belongs to taxpayers, proposed using the money to support those in need. We suggested preparing for ULEZ, aware that if it was implemented then it would hurt. 

We didn’t have to cut any services to find this support.

In stark contrast, the Labour / HRA administration decided the fight was lost before it even began. They failed to prepare for that loss, failed to even set money aside for the council fleet fines, failed to do whatever they can to reduce the burden on the hardest hit. 

Council taxes are too high. Everyone is blaming everyone else for it. There’s only one solution. Real leadership. 

We need to elect people who are bold enough to change the way things work, to propose new systems and not just to repeat what has gone on before. We need to start electing people who have a fresh vision. 

I think we need to be electing Conservatives. Conservatives who ask the question “How can we reduce taxes and give people their money back?”

Our council have failed to prepare for ULEZ and must, therefore, prepare to fail. Your council taxes will go up again. You won’t get better services because of it. 

That’s not OK.

It’s time for leadership.

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