Would ULEZ play help Cllr Hall nomination for London Mayor?

Out of 32 London boroughs, Harrow is one of the four Conservative held London councils – Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon – that along with Surrey County Council has gone for a judicial review challenging the London mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion programme across all London boroughs.
The revolt was apparently instigated by the Harrow Councillor Susan Hall, who at the time led the GLA Conservatives group and is in the habit of calling Mayor Khan “a disgrace”.
Later, she stepped down from the post and is now seeking Tory nomination for the London Mayor election next year.
Many big cities have ULEZ, including Birmingham and Glasgow, to clear up the city’s air. Most petrol vehicles under 16 years old or diesel vehicles under 6 years old already meet the emissions standards.
In London, almost half of London households don’t have a car at all, and of those who have, including the Conservatives, their vehicles have met its standards. Therefore, ULEZ outcry is limited.
The Tory selection criteria for selecting the mayoral candidate is primarily to evaluate which candidate is more suitable to defeat the sitting London mayor.
The ULEZ opposition campaign is unlikely to be the deciding factor in the selection because even if the Labour voters resent the ULEZ expansion, they are less likely to swing behind the Tory candidate, as confirmed by the outcome of some recent by-elections.
In Hounslow, Enfield and Barking & Dagenham by-election campaigns the Tories have gone hard on the ULEZ but the hostility to Khan’s plan did not pay off.
But what the selectors could be focussing more is Cllr Hall’s past performance in a power/ decision-making position, like in Harrow:
Under Cllr Hall portfolio for environment, residents rejected the unwise change in the frequency of collecting the Brown and Waste Bins by the new Harrow Conservative administration in 2006, to the point that a Conservative seat in the Harrow Weald ward was badly lost in the August 2006 by-election that was held due to the death of the Tory councillor.
During her opposition leadership that started in 2010, Tories lost the councils in 2010 and 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – two Tory councillors defected and 2 by-elections were lost in 2013.
The Conservatives lost the Harrow council twice because of the accumulated backlash of the waste collection arrangements and heavy-handed implementation of the CPZ (controlled parking zone), both being under Cllr Hall portfolio.
Regarding the Cllr Hall mention ‘I became the Leader of the Council in Harrow’, she was not elected by the residents. Many say that her very short-lived administration (late 2013 to May 2014 when Tory group lost the council) was a fluke.
[In mid-2013, the breakaway Independent Labour Group, encouraged and supported by the Tory group, snatched the council administration from Labour because of what was described as the personal grudge within the Labour group.
A few months later, Cllr Hall grabbed the council administration with the support of the well-groomed Independent Labour Group who voted in the Tory group through a highly controversial process which created the political mess in Harrow (i.e. a hung council where both the Labour and Tory groups had 25 councillors each, and Tory minority administration was put in place because of the 8 ILG councillors)]
The LGC reported on 21 January 2014, after deleting the chief executive post, Cllr Hall told her council that she is confident her experience of running a hairdressing business will enable her to manage without a chief executive.
Such was the quality of her administration and financial management that the Harrow council’s budget meeting on 27 February 2014 initially rejected her budget being a very irresponsible budget because it had no measurable commitment for a smooth financial transition to the next year when the council had to have £25m savings.
Further in 2014, there were serious concerns about Cllr Hall’s conflict of interest because of her intrinsic opposition to the Harrow’s regeneration plans for Wealdstone where Cllr Hall has the shop. The regeneration could have some unfavourable parking implications for the locality.
Many would question whether running a city such as London is compatible with running a local small business?