The South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has issued details of its replacement of vehicles, pointing out that upgrades are taking place regardless of ULEZ requirements in London.

The Mail on Sunday had reported the National Health Service is having to spend £65 million to buy ambulances that meet ULEZ requirements in London. It said FoI requests showed, among other things, that the South East Coast Ambulance Service has until October 2025 to replace 279 vehicles. 

However, a spokesman for the Trust told Highways News: “The FOI response quoted in the piece asked SECAmb how many non-ULEZ compliant vehicles we have removed from our fleet. As requested, we provided details on the number of vehicles we have already removed from our fleet since 2021-22 (a total of 279 which is incorrectly quoted in the coverage as what we need to replace by 2025).”

The spokesman added: “The FOI response also outlined that these replacements are part of our already existing and continual fleet replacement programme to replace vehicles in line with their normal life cycle.

“As part of this ongoing vehicle replacement programme and our move to lower emission vehicles, we plan to replace any further operational vehicles prior to them being subject to these charges by October 2025.”

(Picture – Yay Images)