Police Investigating Criminal Damage Over Chopped Down ULEZ Traffic Lights

A detail view of signage indicating the new boundary of the LEZ and ULEZ expansion, in London, on Aug. 29, 2023. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Police are looking into incidents of criminal damage after traffic lights with Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) cameras were chopped down on Monday in southeast London.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating four incidents in the London boroughs of Bromley and Lewisham, including in Baring Road, Marvels Lane, Bromley Road, and Southend Lane.

Photos posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Labour councillor Alisa Igoe, show what appear to be clear cuts made by angle grinders.

The Met is trying to establish whether the incidents are linked.

In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Met said: “We continue to treat criminal damage to ULEZ cameras seriously.

“Where there are possible lines of enquiry, local investigators will follow up using a range of investigative approaches including CCTV trawls, witness searches, and an assessment of forensic opportunities.”

A spokesperson for Transport for London (TfL) said camera vandalism will not stop the controversial ULEZ scheme.

“Vandalism is unacceptable and all incidents on our network are reported to the police for investigation. Criminal damage to ULEZ cameras or vehicles puts the perpetrators at risk of prosecution and injury, while simultaneously risking the safety of the public,” TfL said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“Camera vandalism will not stop the ULEZ operating London-wide. All vandalised cameras are repaired or replaced as soon as possible.

“We have an extensive camera network which is sufficient to support the effective operation of the scheme. Anyone driving a non-compliant vehicle within the expanded zone will be detected and we advise everyone to check whether their vehicle is compliant and to consider the various support that is available to help transition to greener modes of transport,” the statement reads.

Councillors Mike Jack, Mark Smith, Alison Stammers also condemned the vandalisation on their Chislehurst Matters X account, saying cutting the traffic lights down “endangers the lives of the hundreds of schoolchildren & others plus motorists who cross here each day.”

Last week, the councillors said three traffic lights had been chopped down in the Bromley district of Chislehurst on Jan. 10.

Drivers have to pay £12.50 a day to enter the ULEZ if their vehicles don’t meet certain emissions standards.

Cameras are installed to record the information of vehicles passing through the zone. Drivers of higher-emission vehicles are issued a fine if they fail to pay the daily charge. There are more than 3,400 cameras across London.

Following the controversial expansion of ULEZ to cover the whole of Greater London last October, damage to ULEZ cameras has been frequent as a group of activists dubbed the “Blade Runners” made it their mission to disable and remove the cameras as a protest against the policy.

Between April and November last year, the Met recorded 1,095 crimes linked to ULEZ cameras. These offences included 252 reports of camera thefts and 843 instances of camera damage.

Cameras have often been taped over, had the wires cut, and increasingly chopped down as wires became harder to get to.

In December, a camera in southeast London was chopped down and blown up, leading to two arrests.

Howard Cox, a pro-driver campaigner turned London mayoral candidate for Reform UK, told The Epoch Times following the arrests that he shares the “total opposition to ULEZ and am massively against the purely money-grabbing [London Mayor] Sadiq Khan’s ignorant, inept management of our once proud capital city,” but “do not condone any criminal act whatsoever.”

Joseph Robertson contributed to this report.