Congestion charge
Plans to remove the residents’ discount for the congestion charge have been abolished – thanks in part to the residents of Kensington and Chelsea. Here we look at what the changes would have meant and how Kensington and Chelsea residents were mobilised into opposition.
When he was Mayor, Ken Livingstone introduced plans to raise the daily charge from £8 to £25 a day for owners of certain vehicles. The charge, which would have seen drivers of cars with higher CO2 emissions paying a premium rate, generated a wave of opposition from residents.
The proposal was due to be introduced this October, but the Council began judicial review proceedings against the then Mayor’s decision. Happily we were able to avoid a legal hearing, as the new Mayor – Boris Johnson – kept to his pledge to abandon the proposals.
Plans to increase the charge to £25 a day was one of the final moves last year by Ken Livingstone and followed on his decision to alter the charge from £5 to £8 a day in 2005.
Reducing traffic flow through London was the main reason given for introducing the charge in the first place. But in 2006 the Mayor decided to introduce an element to the charge which meant that those people driving vehicles with higher emissions would pay more to travel into the capital.
Under the plans, those people driving Band G vehicles, which produce more than 225g of CO2 per kilometre, would have been forced to pay £25 a day to enter the congestion zone and those with very low-emission cars would have been exempt.
Drivers who own higher-polluting vehicles would have also lost their residents’ discount. That would have meant that overnight, some residents would have seen their congestion charge bill rise from 80p to £25 per day – a 3,125 per cent rise.
The Mayor’s office initiated a public consultation in the summer of 2007 – the Council objected to the fact that the consultation was timed to take place when everyone was on holiday. Kensington and Chelsea Council supports measures to reduce carbon emissions – we recently introduced a system of graduated parking permits, under which cars that emit less CO2 can be parked with a cheaper
permit than those that emit more.
But we felt that Ken Livingstone’s proposal would achieve little in terms of reducing carbon dioxide, while penalising working class families and elderly drivers with older, higher emission vehicles.
Public consultation
To make up for a poorly-timed consultation on the matter, the Council acted to ensure local residents with higher polluting vehicles had the opportunity to have their say. Using the Council’s parking permit database, we contacted more than 10,000 borough residents who owned cars with higher emissions. Nearly 2,000 responded opposing the Mayor of London’s proposals with just 43 writing in to support them.
All of these responses were given to IPSOS/Mori, the research firm which carried out the consultation on behalf of the Mayor of London’s office.
Much to the Council’s disappointment these responses were not incorporated into the main consultation. IPSOS/Mori claimed they contained no data about the respondents’ age or sex.
However, the Council argued that the consultation had invited the general public to write directly to IPSOS/Mori – those writing in were not required to include this data. In February this year the Mayor announced the results of the consultation and that emissions charging would be introduced.
Where now for the congestion charge
Earlier this year plans to consult the public about the western extension of London’s congestion charge were announced. The new Mayor of London is currently carrying out the consultation, fulfilling one of his manifesto pledges.
The extension, which covers most of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster was introduced in February 2007. Information on the consultation and the options up for consideration are available on the TfL website, which is hosting an electronic version of the questionnaire for responses.
We are making certain residents are informed about the consultation, ensuring they have a chance to contribute. What do you think of the congestion charge? Do you think Boris Johnson should abolish it, or do you think it’s working well?
To find out more email rbkcdirect@rbkc.gov.uk.
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