The Toledo City Council is currently developing the new ordinance regulating the low emission zone (LEZ), an obligation for municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants according to the Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, regulated by Royal Decree 1052/2022 of December 27. In Toledo, it was decided that, in principle, it would only apply in the historic center, although the mayor, Carlos Velazquez, announced that its implementation will not lead to new traffic restrictions, since there are no pollution problems in the city.
The project is moving forward with the installation of more than a hundred cameras throughout the city to identify vehicles entering through the main entrances, as well as others video cameras for traffic monitoring, which will be added to those that have already been operating for years in the Turriano Hall. The aim is to visualize traffic in real time in different areas of the city to control the busiest roads.
Measures announced
Some of the measures already announced that will be implemented, in addition to the installation of video cameras, include: air quality meters in various areas; gauging stations that will complement and improve the existing network of gauging points; different types of signage; variable message information panels at main entrances; hidden signage; and information panels on free spaces in public car parks.
While the government team is asking for patience until the terms of this new regulation are known, which could come into force at the beginning of the yearCitizens are wondering how this will be implemented and whether it will affect the entry of vehicles. There are also questions about which DGT environmental stickers will be mandatory in Toledo, whether there will be limitations for cars with B and C stickers and whether non-residents will be able to park in the historic center. In addition, there is talk of reducing the number of buses to the historic center, even if we don’t know how it will happen.
For their part, municipal technicians are working on drafting the ordinance after receiving suggestions from neighbors during the summer. On September 5, the deadline to accept these contributions on the implementation objectives of the ZBE of Toledo, as well as on the exceptions, authorizations or moratoriums that must be regulated, and any other issue related to the application of the ZBE, was closed.
Both the Municipal Socialist Group and the spokesperson of IU-Podemos, Txema Fernandezhave requested more information from the government team on this subject, of which they claim, as they told ABC, that they are unaware of the deadlines and content. Fernández warns that this could compromise the receipt of funds from the Climate Change and Energy Transition Act, which provides a subsidy of 3.7 million euros linked to European funds, and which should have been executed in 2023, although it has been granted an extension. “This non-compliance”, according to Fernández, “endangers people’s health, the arrival or return of European funds and the fact that our city is healthier and more habitable, giving more space to people and nature”.
The socialist municipal group also regrets the lack of information, especially that which directly affects the city’s traders and businessmen, who will be impacted by this ordinance. In addition, they denounce, like IU, the failure to respect deadlines, which could mean “a sanction for the government team, a fine or the return of the subsidies granted”.
A situation that the socialist mayor, Jose Carlos Vegadescribed this summer as “a lack of institutional respect, since decisions are taken and publicly informed without consultation, before following the established regulatory channels and convening the competent Mobility Commission.” Likewise, the socialist municipal group reported that the government team is not communicating the whole truth about the project. Low emission zones which is being implemented, among other things because “the current government team has not developed it and, having inherited it, does not know it or does not want to tell it like it is,” said Vega, who explained that “the measurement of the quality of the air equipment, which will be implemented thanks to the subsidy of European funds, they will determine the mobility of the city and will be able to produce traffic restrictions, depending on the type of label that the vehicles have and the values detected, which will benefit the health of the population and the environment.
