A South London shop owner who owns nine cars is challenging the ULEZ expansion, saying it could cost up to £80,000 to replace three of his cars and the scheme will cause “endless” chaos for locals.

Chris Penfold, 50, has owned Deen’s Garage bike shop in Beckenham, Bromley, since 1999.

Alongside selling and fixing bikes professionally, the business owner repairs and races cars, calling it a “silly hobby”.

Mr Penfold told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Because I’m able to fix stuff, I tend to end up attracting free cars.

"My uncle had his catalytic converter stolen off his car so he was going to scrap it because the car was old, so I repaired it… I’ve got nine at the minute, but I’ll compete [in races] in four of them, one of them is my wife’s car, and one of them’s a work car.

"But out of that, six are non compliant [to ULEZ regulations].”

From August, people in outer London will have to pay £12.50 a day to drive if their car or van is not considered environmentally friendly enough.

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Mr Penfold said he and his family drive up to three cars a day for both the bike shop and hobbies such as horse riding and racing – with the cost of upgrading all three vehicles being up to £80,000.

For the shop owner, he feels the low mileage on the cars he repairs means he can get more use out of them than if he were to spend money upgrading his vehicles to ULEZ regulations.

He said: “[I was given a] Nissan Micra which has done 16,000 miles, and bizarrely it’s non-compliant.

"It could do another 80 or 90,000 miles. But yet you can go and buy a 50 grand Tesla, which is completely uneconomic to put on the road.”

Mr Penfold said he agrees with restricting car use in congested areas of central London, but that locals in towns such as Biggin Hill have to drive for miles to get to their nearest shop.

He said: “It’s pretty endless, the chaos it’s going to cause and the discomfort for no great effect on the air because the air is all right anyway.”

He added: “I respect the fact that they want lower emissions, but why should you be able to pay a tax to still poison people?

"Why are you paying money for that to happen? You should either have it and not pay or ban it, not be able to pay to use it.

"It’s basically saying that people are getting really ill and dying and they’ve got a poor quality of life, but if you give us £12.50 it’s actually acceptable.”

A Mayor of London spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “With around 4000 Londoners a year dying prematurely from toxic air, it is imperative that the Mayor’s decision to expand the ULEZ should be implemented without delay.

"Research by Imperial College London shows that Bromley has the highest number of premature deaths linked to air pollution of all London boroughs – with an estimated 204 lives lost every year.”

Bromley Council announced on February 16 that it would be legally challenging the Mayor of London’s plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), in a joint statement with Bexley, Harrow, Hillingdon and Surrey County councils.

Conservative Councillor Colin Smith, leader of Bromley Council, said in a statement: “We have been sounding the alarm about Mayor Khan’s attempted tax raid on the outer ‘London’ suburbs for many months now.

"The fundamental truth as to his true intention is now increasingly plain for all to see.

“In Bromley, this socially regressive tax directly threatens jobs, the viability and availability of small businesses, and causing significant damage to vital care networks, as well as creating a completely avoidable spike in the cost of living locally, at a time when some households are already struggling to make ends meet.”

A Mayor of London spokesperson said that about 85per cent of vehicles in outer London are already compliant with ULEZ regulations.

They said: “For those with the most polluting vehicles, the Mayor has launched his £110m vehicle scrappage scheme – the largest scheme ever launched by any city in the UK – to help low-income Londoners, disabled Londoners and small businesses and charities to replace their old, polluting vehicles.

“The Mayor is also calling on the Government to provide additional scrappage funding to London and the surrounding areas.

"The Government has provided millions of pounds for scrappage schemes in other parts of the country, but not given a single penny to London.”