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New C-Charge zone 'will raise traffic and pollution'
David Williams, Motoring Editor18 Oct 2007
The Mayor's plans for a new emissions-based congestion charge will swamp central London with an extra 10,000 cars and hasten global warming, a report claims today.
The scheme, which aims to hit gas guzzlers with a £25-a-day toll and let low emission cars into the charge zone for free, is due to begin in February depending on a consultation closing tomorrow.
The study by the influential think-tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research, commissioned by Land Rover, is based on analysis of Transport for London's own figures.
The CEBR says social benefits of the scheme will be equivalent to £325,000 a year at most, but it will cost £6.5 million to set up and up to £2.5 million a year to run. This would be enough to offset up to 20 times the amount of carbon emissions the scheme will prevent.
The CEBR says 10,000 motorists - one in five of those deterred by the Ccharge - could start to drive in central London again.
A TfL spokesman said: "These criticismsare reminiscent of the doom-laden arguments of the opponents of the original congestion charge scheme.
"It is not surprising that a report commissioned by Land Rover has come out against charging cars according to emissions."
Reader views (4)
The UK's contributes just 2% of the global CO2 total. Any changes we make to our contribution is irrelevant until the USA and China make major changes. The Con-gestion tax is nothing more than another means to fleece the motorist and give nothing in return.
- Paul, Kilburn, London, 07/11/2007 18:50
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The suggested new "pollution charge" is really a veiled anti-rich tax, as the £25 charge relates directly to the luxury car market and is not a fair charge relative to the extra exhaust pollution involved. A truly fair system based on pollution alone would start at zero for a non polluting car then all cars would be charged directly relative to their "pollution level". Tfl could program their computers to set a fair charge for every individual model on the roads today. So a Honda Civic might pay about £4 while a Volvo would be about £8 and then a Rolls Royce up at the top end with about £15. As has already been said, the size of cars is also an important consideration in Central London.
- Johnny Lyell, Chiswick, UK, 29/10/2007 17:52
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People must be encouraged to drive down emissions, but size of the vehicle should also be an important part of any congestion charge ie: a Toyota Prius will take up twice the road space that something like a Gwiz would use. Surely all these things should be considered together?
- B Strange, London, 19/10/2007 10:33
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I agree that the affect of the proposals will be to increase pollution as they will increase car usage.
The main goal of a congestion charge should be lowering congestion, a secondary goal should be lowering emmission from the smaller number of cars that enter the zone.
3 bands based on emmissions are a good idea, however they should be set at 4 pounds, 8 pounds and 16 pounds and not have the lower band free and the higher band a stupid sum.
As usual Tfl were only interested in asking do you agree with us or not as opposed to asking for other suggestions.
- David Williams, Middlesex, UK, 18/10/2007 14:58
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