Havering Council faces thousands of pounds in fines if it fails to replace its vehicles that do not comply with the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in this financial year, according to a committee report.

The places overview and scrutiny sub-committee met on Tuesday (July 18) to discuss the financial impact of the rollout of ULEZ in Havering.

The ULEZ expansion, coming into effect across London on August 29, will see a daily fee charged for driving non-compliant vehicles.

Havering Council operates a fleet of 200 vehicles, the report said.

Among the non-compliant vehicles, there are 32 grounds maintenance vehicles which need replacing.

Mark Butler, director of asset management at OneSource, said those vehicles are unlikely to be replaced in time for the ULEZ roll-out.

“They are unlikely to be replaced - we can certainly say that by the end of August,” he said.

“Assuming ULEZ does come in on the 29th, we will be incurring fines of £12.50 a day on those 32 vehicles until the point in which we can get them replaced.”

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Grounds maintenance is the biggest grouping of non-compliant vehicles, the meeting report said.

Mr Butler added that if no fleet replacments are made, the worst-case scenario would be for Havering Council to incur fines of £103,000 between the start of September 2023 and the end of March 2024.

This would rise to £177,000 in a full financial year.

But the report stated this scenario was an "unlikely event."

David Taylor, Conservative councillor for St Edwards and committee chair, said: “As yet we don’t know who (which department) is going to be picking up the tab for these fines,” a point validated by Mr Butler.

Simon Blake, the council’s head of transport, added that other measures might have to be taken to avoid fines.

“All we can do is manage this as best we can, and if we can reduce the fleet more to reduce the fines that’s what we’re doing.”

Transport for London granted partial exemptions to passenger transport services (PTS), which operates 62 vehicles across the borough.

The current PTS fleet, a mixture of Euro 5 and Euro 6 vehicles, are currently all exempt from ULEZ daily charges until October 2025, the report said.

But Mr Blake warned that the grace period can be taken away at any time and is not set in stone, meaning the council could be liable for further charges.