As most of you are probably well aware, the London Ultra-Low Emission Zone is set to expand later this year, to cover pretty-much everything within the M25, and meaning owners of cars and light commercial vehicles which do not comply with the stringent emission rules have to pay at least £12.50 a day to drive within ‘the zone’ – for larger vehicles the costs have been much higher for some time.
Don’t assume that this is a purely-London issue either; Birmingham and Bristol already have similar schemes, Glasgow’s is coming in June, and Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have schemes that will start charging in 2024.
There is, though, one way around this, and one which is quite interesting for enthusiasts. If you choose a pre- 1973 light commercial vehicle, then even if you want to use it commercially, you can, as the rules currently stand, do so and be completely exempt from all LEZ/ULEZ charges! This is one reason why so many of the ‘street food’ vans and so on
