Dear LPG readers,

ULEZ and congestion charge exemptions during Christmas allow pensioners to visit distant relatives, encouraging them to utilize this opportunity for holiday visits.

I hope that LPG will be able to post this short message in early December.  

I wrote about this last year and know that, although we have been forced to get used to it, many pensioners still see fewer relatives who used to visit a lot more often before October 2021. 

I understand that we need to sort out so many aspects of what we have managed to do to our planet, but somehow, it all seems a bit unfair.

But times are changing, and the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is expanding despite the phasing out of the internal combustion engine, the increase in electric cars on our roads, and the ever-rising fuel price that powers them. 

This time last year, I sent a message that I hope reminded readers to remind those relatives who don’t live as close as they used to, even though geography is not the reason why, that the same rules apply this year. On Christmas day, the ULEZ charge will be lifted, and now, when so many telephone calls include a conversation about who is visiting who on the big day, it might be the time to drop that fact into the odd telephone parent / adult-child conversations.

The congestion charge is also to be lifted between 25/12/23 and 01/01/24 which might mean a trip to see the lights if one of them will take you. It might make a bit of a change to the holiday for those who don’t get out much because travelling in any other way than by car (barring by taxi) can be really difficult for so many of us oldies. The problem is so often our aging knees, legs and backs.

It never ceases to amaze me that when you go looking for this information on line it is so often hidden somewhere in the middle of the official websites in question rather than  more prominently.  So, I hope that this message might help to shove it a little further up our personal Christmas preparation pecking orders …

Our family might research this during their Christmas preparations, but there is nothing wrong with dropping a hint or two during some of those pre-Christmas phone calls…

AR shares the official news…

AR shares this year’s official news but warns that you will need to read the small print…

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