RE: No Congestion Charge Increase

RE: No Congestion Charge Increase

Tuesday 8th July 2008

No Congestion Charge Increase

Boris quashes proposed rise


London Mayor Boris Johnson has abandoned plans to raise the congestion charge for vehicles claimed to be the most polluting.

I did it for you PH
I did it for you PH
Ken Kivingstone proposed to raise the charge from £8 to £25 from October, and Boris has said all along that he would scrap these plans if he won the Mayoral elections.

Ken had also proposed that low emission vehicles would be allowed free entry into the congestion charge zone, but a study into the plan reported that this would encourage smaller vehicles into London which would increase pollution and congestion.

Boris agreed saying "I believe the proposal would have made congestion worse by allowing small cars in for free" he went on to say "I am delighted that we have been able to scrap the £25 charge, which would have hit families and small businesses hardest"

While Boris claims abandoning the proposal will save £10 million and achieve a 'fairer and more effective charge' Ken said ditching the charge was 'a further blow' to tackling climate change

Porsche contested the increase and Andy Goss, managing director of Porsche Cars Great Britain said: "We were always confident that our legal case was right and that we would win in the end"

"The charge was clearly unfair and was actually going to increase emissions in London. Porsche is proud to have played a decisive role in striking down such a blatantly political tax increase targeting motorists."

TfL was ordered by the High Court to pay Porsche's legal costs. Porsche has announced that the money would be donated to the youth charity Skidz.

Author
Discussion

Jimbo_vx

Original Poster:

326 posts

235 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Nice one Boris, finally some common sense.

Good on Porche to be donating their legal fees too.

Tuna

19,930 posts

283 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Has anyone else noticed that Ken hangs around Boris like a wet fart? No-one seems to have told him that he's out of a job. Instead he appears to living in a cardboard box outside the mayor's offices and every time Boris does something, Ken pops up telling everyone who'll listen "That's a bad decision, I wouldn't have done that".

chunkymonkey71

13,015 posts

197 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Top man, Bozza!

thumbup

m4tthew

8,900 posts

201 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Tuna said:
Has anyone else noticed that Ken hangs around Boris like a wet fart? No-one seems to have told him that he's out of a job. Instead he appears to living in a cardboard box outside the mayor's offices and every time Boris does something, Ken pops up telling everyone who'll listen "That's a bad decision, I wouldn't have done that".
laugh Like stink on st.

'Futher blow to tackling climate change' my arse.

RB Will

9,662 posts

239 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Why are porshe claiming they have won their battle when it was all down to Boris. Or am I missing something?

theaxe

3,557 posts

221 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
I guess they got the result they wanted even if they didn't get their day in court.

Again, good on them for donating the legal fees to charity.

Hitch78

6,101 posts

193 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
RB Will said:
Why are porshe claiming they have won their battle when it was all down to Boris. Or am I missing something?
Boris is probably now driving a brand new Porsche at the weekends!

mister.t

3,006 posts

195 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
Nice one Boris biggrinbiggrinbiggrin

Now scrap it altogether tongue out

Callan.T89

8,422 posts

192 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
RB Will said:
Why are porshe claiming they have won their battle when it was all down to Boris. Or am I missing something?
By Making TFL pay Porsches legal fees the courts are affectively saying that Porsche were right and TFL were wrong even though it didn't need to go to final judgement.

posterboy

1,144 posts

192 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
mister.t said:
Nice one Boris biggrinbiggrinbiggrin

Now scrap it altogether tongue out
blabla

dave_Sw1

240 posts

217 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
haha Ken, you must be so gutted that no one misses you and you were hated, just a shame you werent ousted sooner.

magnus911

584 posts

188 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
God I hope something horrible happens to Ken

spoonoff

361 posts

197 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
m4tthew said:
Tuna said:
Has anyone else noticed that Ken hangs around Boris like a wet fart? No-one seems to have told him that he's out of a job. Instead he appears to living in a cardboard box outside the mayor's offices and every time Boris does something, Ken pops up telling everyone who'll listen "That's a bad decision, I wouldn't have done that".
laugh Like stink on st.

'Futher blow to tackling climate change' my arse.
+1
'Climate Change' and 'Green' are just rhetoric used to rob us of more of our hard-earned and win votes from people who don't understand basic economics and can't do maths. Not one initiative, tax or incentive proposed by any party is going to make a genuine difference.

gumsie

680 posts

208 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
You guys are all missing something. Tfl didn't pay the legal fees, WE did! That's right, you and I.
Commendations for Porsche for getting the sensible outcome but something else needs to be done at times like this. What ever the outcome Joe public has ended up with the bill.

March2008

293 posts

188 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
"A further blow for climate change?" Ken, put up, and shut up. I'm yet to be convinced by any argument relating congestion charging to the overall climate on our planet. A couple of natural disasters have a much greater impact on our environment, but I forgot, can't Tax mother nature can you Labour!

Crow555

1,037 posts

193 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
spoonoff said:
m4tthew said:
Tuna said:
Has anyone else noticed that Ken hangs around Boris like a wet fart? No-one seems to have told him that he's out of a job. Instead he appears to living in a cardboard box outside the mayor's offices and every time Boris does something, Ken pops up telling everyone who'll listen "That's a bad decision, I wouldn't have done that".
laugh Like stink on st.

'Futher blow to tackling climate change' my arse.
+1
'Climate Change' and 'Green' are just rhetoric used to rob us of more of our hard-earned and win votes from people who don't understand basic economics and can't do maths. Not one initiative, tax or incentive proposed by any party is going to make a genuine difference.
Indeed. The clue is in the name anyway, 'Congestion' charge. It was supposedly set up to tackle road congestion yet Ken quite clearly has admitted to targeting larger vehicles simply as government revenue under the pretence that's it's all for green issue.

You'd wonder if he's ever actually listened to himself talk.

Hopefully this will knock all other C-charge proposals in other cities out to touch now.

Z064life

1,926 posts

247 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
gumsie said:
You guys are all missing something. Tfl didn't pay the legal fees, WE did! That's right, you and I.
Commendations for Porsche for getting the sensible outcome but something else needs to be done at times like this. What ever the outcome Joe public has ended up with the bill.
Exactly what I was thinking. It's the revenue from our taxes paying for this.

MrKipling43

5,788 posts

215 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
I love the way some people post on here as though the people they're sgging off actually read this site! It's hilarious.

"Yeah Ken, you're such a tt blah blah blah". rofl

Anyway I'm glad that Boris is delivering on his promises - bus lanes are already opening to bikers, higher C-Charge scrapped etc. At least the way that the Tories are managing it it actually feels like a congestion charge rather than an envy tax.

Fetchez la vache

5,568 posts

213 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
If it was actually anything to do with congestion, there would have been something to do with multiple occupancy vehicles. There wasn't, it was just yet another thinly veiled tax with a devious sheen of being green, that nobody believed.

cottonfoo

6,016 posts

209 months

Tuesday 8th July 2008
quotequote all
The legal fees are about £400,000 according to the Guardian!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/08/lon...