Kenny Irish used to have a toy stall in Queen’s Crescent

IT was great to catch up with Kenny Irish, whose legendary toy stall is back in Queen’s Crescent Market after several years away.

Now living in West Hampstead, he grew up in Kentish Town and went to Sir Richard of Chichester secondary school.

He told me how he left the market in 2015 to start a new life working as a foreman for the street sweepers based in Arlington Road, Camden Town.

He also ran Camden’s car pound and worked as the council’s security guard contractor too. A pillar of the community, he has won several Camden community awards along the way.

But all is not well with Mr Irish, 57, who told me a failure to compensate him for scrapping his old van because of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) had left him in debt and ready to blow.

Mr Irish said: “I totally agree with the policy. They should be scrapping these old cars to help the environment. I want to help the next generation, the youth. I’ve been doing that for years. I’m always helping the kids in Camden.

“But the way they are ripping people off on the vans is wrong. It has crippled people. I qualified for it because I am on low income. But I have had to spend all this money on a new van – because of the ULEZ.

“My sister lent me the money. I was hoping to get £7,000 to give her something back. But I am being told I can’t get it. I’m in a lot of debt and I’ve never been in debt in my whole life. They told me they had run out of government funds. Now they have extended the thing that has felt like rubbing salt in the wounds all the more.”

Mr Irish said he applied for financial help with the Ulez scheme when it came in in Camden, which was available for people like him on low incomes. He got a letter back saying the scrappage scheme had run out of government funds and urged him not to get rid of his van or buy a replacement.

Mr Irish meeting Sir Keir Starmer as he prepared to succeed the retiring Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson

Cruelly, the letter came a couple of days after he had scrapped his old 2007 van for a measly £600 and shelled out £25,000 for a 2019 Ford Transit.

The letter said that when the scheme was widened he would be able to reapply. Following the huge political row over ULEZ in the last fortnight, the Mayor of London has said the “scrappage” scheme is being expanded to include “even more Londoners”.

But Mr Irish has been knocked back again with another letter saying he would not be eligible for the pay out because TfL did not give the specific purchase their blessing at the time. To make matters worse the new van has developed some problems that could cost thousands of pounds to fix.

Mr Irish, who has a file of documents relating to his case that he called his Bible, said: “The whole thing has been a nightmare. To be honest right now my bubble has blown and I can’t take any more. I want my money, that’s what I really want.”

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK. CLICK BANNER.

The political row over the ULEZ scheme does not look set to wither away and the Labour Party is in real danger of wilting on its important environment policies in its all consuming pursuit for power.

It is people like Mr Irish that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan needs to do better to help along the way.

I contacted TfL for Mr Irish this week, who said they were looking into Mr Irish’s case. The Mayor of London’s website says that a new £110m scrappage scheme has been funded, providing financial assistance to help eligible Londoners scrap their non-compliant vehicles to prepare for the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across all London boroughs from August 29.