Boris scraps congestion charge western extension

The Mayor revealed the demise of the £8-a-day charge, introduced by his predecessor Ken Livingstone 19 months ago, at an event in Portobello Road.

"The people of London have spoken and we have listened," he said to cheers from residents and market traders.

The decision follows growing evidence that it has failed to reduce congestion in west London while causing serious damage to local businesses such as the market.

There will no longer be any charge to drive in the western extension zone, comprising almost all of the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, plus Bayswater, Belgravia and Pimlico.

The original central C-charge zone, east of the Edgware Road/Park Lane/ Vauxhall Bridge Road axis, will continue as now. Mr Johnson's decision will surprise some because he had seemed to be moving towards keeping the western zone in a modified form. After initially promising to get rid of it he later expressed support for a charge-free period in the middle of the day.

Speaking in Portobello Road, Mr Johnsonsaid: "We could have ignored the data like the last Mayor but we will not do that. I want to remove this tax by 2010 and hopefully before. It will be great for this part of London which is already struggling and it is absolutely the right thing to do, especially from an economical point of view."

Mr Johnson said the figure of £70 million generated from the western extension charge had been greatly exaggerated and that the lost revenue could easily be found from TfL's
£8.2 billion budget.

Portobello Road has lost about 40 market stalls since the western extension was introduced and traders were concerned that the combination of the charge, the recession, and the new, charge-free Westfield shopping centre nearby could kill off their businesses.

The move was welcomed by Greg Hands, Tory MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, which has suffered from traffic diverting around the western extension to avoid the charge, and the council itself. The Liberal Democrats and London Chamber of Commerce also hailed the decision. However, the Greens questioned its environmental impact and Labour were set to oppose it.

Mr Johnson's decision follows a public consultation showing that a majority was against keeping the charge in its current form. However, there was some support for the modification option.

Hostility to the charge among residents — who get a 90 per cent discount — is still substantial, but has softened from the near-unanimity of last year.

A further, statutory consultation will be needed before the charge goes, so it cannot be formally scrapped until 2010. But Mr Johnson is understood to be considering measures to bring earlier relief to the area, including an enforcement holiday.

Research by Transport for London in August found that since the western extension began in February last year, "the rapidity of the deterioration in [traffic] conditions has been striking," that "it has not been possible to identify a clear "congestion charge effect on measured air quality" and that "frequency of residents' travel by car was largely unchanged".

Congestion in the western zone is higher than it was before the charge started, though TfL blames this on roadworks. The same TfL research found "deteriorating business performance" inside the extension zone, compared with improving performance in a control group of businesses outside it. The actual extra revenue in the first year of the extended charge was £14 million.