Paddick will charge £10 for driving into London

Hundreds of thousands of motorists would be penalised for bringing their cars into the capital in a bid to reduce congestion on the city's roads.

The former Met police chief hopes the levy would encourage visitors and commutersto switch to public transport instead. Commercial vehicles and residents who registered their car at a London address would qualify for a 100 per cent discount.

But the "out-of-town" tax is set to raise fears it would put off tourists from visiting a city already considered one of the most expensive in the world.

Launching his transport manifesto, Mr Paddick said: "A Greater London congestion charge will have a real impact on congestion and pollution. This is about getting people out of their cars and on to public transport.

"This will make a significant contribution to improving London's public transport system, in the suburbs as well as in the centre."

He claims the scheme, which would be brought in if he won the 1 May election, would cost little to set up as the technology is already in place to monitor the Low Emissions Zone around the perimeter of the capital.

Fixed and mobile cameras read the number plates of vehicles within the zone which are then checked against a database of registered vehicles.

He has vowed to scrap the LEZ, under which high-polluting lorries are charged up to £200 a day, claiming it puts small businesses at risk.

Lib-Dem aides expect the £10-a-day charge to raise thousands of pounds every day which would be reinvested in the public transport network, though the plans have not yet been costed.

Mr Paddick also proposed to keep a flat rate of £8 for every car travelling into the central congestion charging zone and scrap the Western extension.

Under his plans, there would be no more fines for late payment and the charge would be collected by sending out a bill once it reached £40, keeping down administration costs. He would re-phase traffic lights and manage roadworks to keep traffic moving.

Ken Livingstone said this week he would bring in a £25 C-charge for gasguzzling "Chelsea tractors" while making the smallest cars exempt.

Mr Paddick pledged to bring in a "women friendly" carriage on every Tube running from 9pm to closing time seven days a week. A similar scheme would operate on the top 10 most dangerous bus routes, which would carry transport police on late-night journeys.

The Tube would be run in a similar way to the Docklands Light Railway where one firm runs tracks, trains, staffing and signalling for a fixed fee and Transport for London take the fares.

On the buses, pre-pay Oyster card holders would be eligible for unlimited journeys within an hour so they could change buses without an additional charge.

Bus routes would be shortened to stop them picking up so many delays and a GPS tracking system would beam their arrival time ahead to bus-stops.

The Lib-Dem candidate would spend an extra £50 million on cycle lanes for all red routes, join the other main candidates in bringing in a Paris-style bike hire scheme and have both cycling and black cab trade representatives on the board of Transport for London.