Diesel drivers to face £2.45 'D-Charge' parking bill in London ~ station of gear

Westminster council has launched a new £2.45 parking surcharge for pre-2015 diesels in parts of central London

2017-06-26 13:30

Diesel drivers will be hit with a new, £2.45 'D-Charge' when parking in central London, in a push to tackle air pollution in the capital.

Westminster Council has announced it will trial the new 'D-Charge', that sees hourly parking rates for all pre-2015 diesel cars jump by 50 per cent, in Hyde Park, Marylebone and parts of Fitzrovia. In doing so, Westminster has become the first town hall in Britain to impose a penalty on diesel drivers looking for a parking space.

The normal hourly parking charges in Westminster is £4.90 an hour, but pre-2015 diesel cars will now be charged £7.35 per hour to park. The City of Westmister hopes the surcharge will dissuade motorists from using polluting diesel vehicles in the capital. It added that the money raised by the surcharge will be spent on initiatives to promote "sustainable transport."

Plans for the charge were announced back in January, with councilor David Harvey, Westminster’s cabinet member for environment, sports and community saying: “Additional chargers for diesel vehicles will mean people think twice about using highly polluting cars and invest in cleaner transport that will make a real difference in the quality of air we breathe.”

The move to penalise older diesel car drivers comes just days after the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced plans for a pay-per-mile charging scheme in the capital.

The D-Charge will work alongside the existing Congestion Charge, as well as the forthcoming T-Charge later this October, where the most polluting cars will have to pay an extra £10 to drive in central London.

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Martin Saarinen

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