T-Charge: New London traffic charge comes into force
Drivers of older, more polluting vehicles now have to pay almost twice as much to drive in central London.
Mayor Sadiq Khan's £10 T-Charge, which mainly applies to diesel and petrol vehicles registered before 2006, has come into force.
It covers the same area as the existing congestion charge zone, bumping up the cost to £21.50 for those affected.
Opponents said the scheme would "disproportionately penalise London's poorest drivers".
The measure is the latest attempt by Mr Khan to improve air quality in the capital and, according to the mayor's office, will affect 34,000 motorists a month.
Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Khan said: "We've got a health crisis in London caused by the poor quality air.
"Roughly speaking each year more than 9,000 Londoners die prematurely because of the poor quality air - children in our city whose lungs are underdeveloped, with adults who suffer from conditions such as asthma, dementia and strokes directly caused by poor quality air."
However, Simon Birkett, from the campaign group Clean Air London, does not believe the move goes far enough.
"The mayor has pledged in his manifesto to restore London's air quality to legal and safe limits and that means he has to do a whole lot more.
"We want him to take steps which are bigger, stronger and smarter."
'Filthy air'
Many people have taken to social media to express their views on the new levy.
Daniel McGuiness said on Twitter: "T-Charge, it's a start but there's still a long way to go in tackling the public health emergency that is our filthy air. #CleanAir".
While David Smith said: "With the introduction of the new T-Charge, it'll be the poorest who will be paying the most... again.
The audience: The audience that is more likely to see this article are the british citizens. It will cause them sorry, because they will know the damages that the contamination is causing and are more likely to feel eager to help in this issue.
The author’s point of view: In this article the author’s point of view is kind of impartial since the author is just saying facts about that is happening with the pollution in London. But we can also infer that maybe he wants a change with the contamination. He uses clue words by putting titles like “Filthy Air” and stating that it is a big issue.
The publisher's point of view: In this article, the publisher, which is bbc news, is not stating “sides” because there is only one side since it is an ambiental problem and the publisher can not takes sides.
The article is directed or targeted to: This article is directed to the people who live in London, it is informing that what they want to achieve is “Clean Air” they want to stop pollution and they are charging for the cars that pollute the most and this is also saying that the people who have less money are the ones who will have to pay more because they have older cars that are considered as more pollutant.
The objective: The objective is to inform the population (more specifically London’s population) about the cars being a cause of pollution, and now in London a new law has been applied where if a car is very old or is very contaminating then it will cost almost twice than a normal car.
Opinion: In our opinion we think that London is doing the right thing by taking the initiative to reduce the air pollution and improving the quality of air, because it has caused many damages. But we agree with Simon Birkett, not just by charging the most polluted cars, the problem will be over, many of them will pay and will still contaminate. New measures need to be implied to stop this issue, for example putting schedules to drive to the cars, raising awareness to the citizens about the damages an even promoting electric cars.
T-Charge: New London traffic charge comes into force. (2017, October 23). Retrieved October 24, 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-41695116
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