Add CooperWorld Summary Complete the box below and press Save, if you press Cancel any changes will not be saved Editorial - Oct 2023 issue Let’s start this month on a bit of a hot but important topic, and one that all of you have probably heard about by now, and that is the expansion at the end of August, of the ULEZ designation to all the outer boroughs of London, including the one I live in. Although this change obviously affects people living in the London area, it will also affect people driving into London depending on their car/vehicle conformity. Robert touches on the subject too in his Chairman’s Chat, but predominantly on the premise of owning a classic Mini. However, just owning a classic Mini does not automatically grant you exemption from the ULEZ charges as it is dependent on the age of the car too, i.e. it has to be over 40 years old because then it can be classed as a Historic vehicle, and historic vehicles are exempt from the ULEZ charges. So, Rover Minis built in the 1990s are not eligible to be classed as Historic Vehicles nor sadly, are they likely to be ULEZ compliant I understand. However, the Historic Vehicle classification is a 40 year rolling exemption but, it could be either a long wait for your car to get the exemption, or it is rescinded before your car reaches 40 years of age! However, if your car is 40 years old as at 1<sup>st</sup> April 2024 you can have it re-classified as a Historic Vehicle by the DVLA, which will automatically exempt it from any current ULEZ charges (although not congestion charges). It also of course affords you other benefits which Robert mentions and so I won’t steal any more of his thunder here. One final observation I would make and that many people may not be aware of is the advice given by TfL which states that most petrol cars built and registered after 2005 will be compliant. But then this infers that any car built and registered before 2005 will not compliant. This is NOT the case in respect of every petrol BMW MINI built from the beginning of production in 2001. I can confirm this to be the case as my wife and I own between us a 2002 Cooper and 2003 Cooper S and both cars comply. So, if you own such a MINI and live outside of the ULEZ designated London areas, you can still drive into London without having to pay any ULEZ charges. Moving on swiftly now, and I am really pleased to have received the first Register report from our returning Ex-Police Cooper & Cooper S Registrar Peter Laidler. These cars, by the nature of their use had hard working lives, so not many have survived to this day. But they have their own fascinating histories which I look forward to reading about in Peter’s future reports. Then I have written an article on my first ever visit to CarFest. It was an event that I had been aware of for many years, and particularly so, on seeing yellow signs to its location when on the A303 driving to Dorset to visit family there. Well, it is quite an event and it is difficult to portray the experience of going to it because there was so much there to see and take in. Anyway, do read my article and get a flavour of the event if you, like me, have never been to it either. Paul Paul Sulma - Editor CooperWorld
