Analysis by Ealing councillor and blogger Phil Taylor.
Yesterday
was the fifth anniversary of the start of the London Mayor's
congestion charging scheme. Last year I set out to show how all of the
£930 million taken by the Mayor in charges and fines had been spent on out of
control set-up and running costs, see previous posting. Another year has gone by and the
Mayor has taken £1.2 billion off Londoners in the last five years for the
Congestion Charge. Where has it all gone?
No doubt the Mayor or one of his 265 press people will tell us that the charge never set out to raise revenue. Well that is OK because it doesn't. The Evening Standard showed last week that it doesn't do much for congestion either. They said:
No doubt the Mayor or one of his 265 press people will tell us that the charge never set out to raise revenue. Well that is OK because it doesn't. The Evening Standard showed last week that it doesn't do much for congestion either. They said:
"Traffic speeds in parts of the congestion charge zone have fallen dramatically - in some cases to even lower than before the toll was introduced five years ago. An Evening Standard survey has found evidence that traffic on 12 key routes through central London travels at an average of only 6.5 mph. Speeds on some main routes are now slower than a walking pace. On the Strand - a vital east-west corridor - the average speed is 1.8 mph."
When the Mayor isn't claiming that these schemes
set out to raise no cash, he makes the opposite assertion. At their press
conference last Tuesday the Mayor and
his Transport for London Commissioner, Peter Hendy, announced the rebranding of
the Congestion Charge as a CO2 charge. During the course of his remarks
Peter Hendy said the charge "raised just over £120 million last year" and "this
new CO2 charge will raise an estimated £30-50 million". Both of these
claims are economically illiterate.
Continue reading "Phil Taylor: London Congestion Charge - 5 years, £1.2 billion and..." »
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