Masked vigilantes have put hundreds of car emission-checking cameras out of action.
The vandals – sometimes dubbed Blade Runners after the 1982 movie involving hardline activists – use foam, supermarket bags and angle-grinders to sabotage the Ultra Low Emission Zone spies in London.
There are reports on social media that drivers are willing to pay £40 for the cutting of cables.
Meanwhile, innocent motorists are taking the opportunity to drive their cars in areas where they know the cameras have been knocked out – so avoiding the £12.50 charge. The Ulez zone, expanded across London on August 29, means vehicles must meet European emissions standards to avoid paying the tax.
Most vehicles that meet the no-fee criteria are petrol cars registered after 2005, and diesel cars registered after September 2015.
South West London’s Worcester Park is one area said be in the heartland of the rebellion. While its high street lies outside the zone, many of its side streets lie within it.
According to Juliemaps, which collects data from members of the public, most of the 300 cameras recently installed across two neighbourhoods have been cut down, covered up or otherwise vandalised.
In Sutton, the council area covering Worcester Park, more than half of the 99 cameras installed are currently inactive. In Worcester Park itself, all eight Ulez cameras are said to have been vandalised or tampered with.
Some 87 of the 122 cameras in the borough of Bromley – more than 70% – are inactive. In Croydon, South London, 98 cameras out of 177 are not working while Bexley and Havering in the east of the capital have had nearly half of their cameras taken down.
Juliemaps website suggests it takes an average of 118 days between a problem being reported and fixed in Greater London. Jack Coles, 76, who runs building supplies store DG Coles & Son in Worcester Park in the Ulez zone, said all the cameras around him had been destroyed.
He added: “A lot of people around here are old and can’t afford it. You have little old ladies who use the car once a week to do the shopping and now they can’t.”
TV producer Richard Moore, who lives just inside the zone admitted he has hardly driven his 1997 Mazda Bongo for six weeks to avoid paying.
A spokesman for Transport for London, said: “Camera vandalism will not stop the Ulez operating London-wide. All vandalised cameras are repaired or replaced as soon
as possible.”
Police said they recorded 795 crimes between April 1 and September 30, relating to the cameras and people have been charged.
