Did Uxbridge just vote for Climate Change?

[Tatami]

By 495 votes? The reason for the narrow Tory win appears to be down to a campaign against the Ultra Low Emmission Zone. Cleaner air, doing something positive about Climate Change, helped by access to the best Public transport network in the country? Nah, more of the same please; dirty air and dirty politics. FFS Uxbridge.

It was expected to be a clear win for labour, whatever local messaging was about.

The poor advertising will have just caused unnecessary worry, I hope your aunt continues to enjoy her car

Umm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruislip,Northwood_and_Pinner(UK_Parliament_constituency)

I do think labour need to be careful. Between ulez (isnt birmingham getting one) and the women issue they are not the sure fire win.

as had just been explained to me. It recently changed from being in the uxbridge constituency.
so it was until this election.
so I was wrong. It is however in ulez.

Birmingham already has a LEZ and is a much improved place for it.

The constituency boundaries changed in 2010.

I think it’s being tightened up to match the ulez which has had a knock on for second hand car prices.

You might think that, but there are no current plans to extend the LEZ in Birmingham.

Yes they voted for climate change. A lot of people don't want to do anything to tackle it.

I did say I only go there for work and I was wrong. However in your googling have you seen how the transport links are crap? How it doesn’t have its own proper supermarket? How the secondary school was woeful? So locals try not to send them there and use the ones out of county - so out of the ulez zone. Which means if some children want to go to their friends houses the parents will have to pay £12.50 to collect them

So you CAN drive polluting vehicles near schools, so long as you pay the bribe.

Sort of like how you CAN be a gangster/oligarch/wealthy sex offender and retain your Coutts account, as long as you put enough money in it.

Got it.

i was under the impression the emissions were being tightened to match. It was a conversation with a birmingham car trader at an auction, so it may just be people concerned it’s coming.

Idk I think it works both ways as typically lower turn out protest type votes which might be showing in the other by elections too

I’d say it’s hard to call from these by elections but what it does do is stop any one party saying we know what the people want.

They won one each.

That means the race is still on in a way that would feel stalled if one party had won more seats

Well this thread has taught me that a large number of MNers (who are presumably based in the SE of England going by the comments) have absolutely no fucking clue what the word "rural" means. Every day's a school day!

Whenever I have to drive through the SE I am always depressed by the concentration of people/cars/buildings and acres of concrete, but now I realise that this is what MNers could be referring to when they claim to "live rurally". 😂

And next time I read a MNer defending their 4x4 use (or similar) on the basis that they "live rurally", I will assume that there is a good chance they are talking complete bullshit.

Yes. And your 2022 Range Rover evoque diesel emits more
co2 than the 2005 renault clio diesel I mentioned above.
yet the clio is £12.50 and the Range Rover free

if only it made sense.

Really good waterproof clothing and shoes cost quite a lot. Otherwise it's shitty shoes and wet feet. It's really grim getting wet through to underwear. (Student days when I could walk without pain) Soggy packets, cos cheap bags aren't waterproof unless you go plastic. Buying food from more expensive shops or in smaller quantities that you can't benefit from discounts. A mile is a long way with heavy bags in the rain. And you still couldn't carry a week's worth of shopping.

Tax air flights more, or detached houses that don't benefit from heat from neighbours or large cars. Or plastic grass. Or tumble dryers or something that doesn't make poor people's lives harder while the rich can carry on without it effecting them.

Ex lives over a mile from a decent cheap supermarket up a hill and down a busy road. I'm about the same from two. I used to be able to walk with the pushchair to do a top up shop but not a full weekly shop. And it takes time. Drive ten minutes or walk half an hour each way?

Unless you are doing this yourself regularly it's easy to type how easy it is.

Yes we do need to do stuff about climate change but start with those climate damaging luxuries that richer people can afford. Change things in a way that make life easier...stop making things like solar panels and insulation more expensive. Campaign for reducing meat consumption.

Those who make the rules are more likely to be well off and bring in changes that don't effect them but do pénalisé those who are already paying more because they are poor.

Some of the responses here are a great example of how wedded people are to their cars. Why are they driving a mile to a supermarket? That's a perfectly cyclable distance! For larger orders, there are deliveries, and don't tell me you're buying sacks of rubble from Wickes 3 times a week.

Cyclable - if it's just you. When I lived near Uxbridge, it was me, a toddler, and a baby - and it wasn't a mile, it was about 3 miles, and involved dual carriage way and an M40 roundabout - so a bit too far to walk, and, bus took an hour. I did use deliveries but they don't work all the time for everything.

I think people don't understand how communities around towns have to function (where I grew up there was one bus a day for instance), so it's not just as simple as 'get on a bike' - doubly when you have kids.

It’s primarily diesel cars that are problematic.

You know the ones the government incentivised people to buy rather than petrol… because of their CO2 emissions where the NO2 diesel emissions issues were ignored.

I drive through Bromley regularly taking my ds to various sports matches. To me it often feels rural. It's a huge borough with lots of fields, tiny country lanes and no way of getting anywhere without a car. When my ds has a match, I always check to see if we could use public transport...never have I seen a quicker route than using my car. Many journeys are about 40 minutes in the car...when I look at public transpot, it could be 2.5 hours, two buses, two trains and a walk at the end.

I’m south east. I have to swap to winter tyres, the roads I use for the school run are frequently blocked by floods, mud or ice and impassable. Buses often can’t make the hills,it might not be comparable to actual rural life. But the roads can have similar traits, even if they are to get you to a town.

It's not a climate change policy though.

It's an air quality policy.

You aren’t paying much attention if you don’t think parts of the SE aren’t rural.

But a built up area with poor public transport or poor infrastructure =/= "rural"

Winter tyres are better for safety once average temps go below 7 degrees, so I think they're advisable wherever you live.

Parts of it may be.

Uxbridge and Ruislip are not.