Stop the Khangestion Charge - potentially Londonwide. London Mayor's Transport Strategy is Highway Robbery! v1.0.2 200917

A FAIR DEAL FOR THE MOTORIST

“NO TO A WIDER KHANGESTION CHARGE!”

- IT’S HIGHWAY ROBBERY!

In 2016 Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London on a bland manifesto pledging to “Maintain the Congestion Charge at its current level” and tackle congestion through harmless-sounding measures like encouraging car clubs and managing road works.

He would not have got elected if it had come out with aggressive anti-motorist proposals like those in his draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy.

· THE THREAT OF EXTENDING THE ‘KHANGESTION CHARGE’ EVEN MORE WIDELY – EVEN LONDONWIDE.

In the UK, motorists pay approximately 4-5 times over for the use of the road. Yet Mayor Khan bizarrely perceives that London’s ‘pay too little’ and are even subsidised by public transport users! No figures are given to support this.

Again, without giving a costing, Khan seeks “new ways of paying for road use”, with a view to slashing car use. He expresses a wish to take over collection of VED (‘road tax’) from central government and have powers to set the level. That it is likely to be raised punishingly is indicated by plans to eventually raise taxation levels to discourage ownership of conventional vehicles,

Elsewhere he says he will ‘give consideration’ to a ‘next generation road user charging system’ hinting that it might be per-mile and roll-up the existing schemes (e.g. central London Congestion Charge, low emission zones and tolls, such as for the Silvertown tunnel).

The 32 London boroughs are obliged to support the Mayor’s Transport Strategy, once finalised. In Orwellian language, they will ‘need to think radically about the role of demand management measures’ to achieve ‘mode share’, for instance. Bureaucratspeak for pushing motorists out of their cars and forcing them to walk, cycle, etc – or not travel at all.

As part of ‘traffic reduction strategies’, they will have to consider ‘road user charging’ (read ‘road pricing’, effectively extending the Congestion Charge) and/or ‘Workplace Parking Levies’ – effectively a tax on going to work.

Khan already has the power to extend the Congestion Charge London-wide. Once the Mayor’s Transport Strategy has been updated, he can claim that this has been agreed in principle – and make everybody fall in line! This is why publicity and objections now are important.

Although the timeframe indicated is about 2020, remember that Khan has been prepared to bring forward other plans (e.g. ULEZ, despite reasoned opposition).

His interest in ‘per-mile’ (i.e. distance-based) road pricing coincidentally follows the approach that the EU is seeking to impose in proposals that came out just 3 weeks before. (NB read the small print - they are far wider than for HGVs.) Such a scheme would involve systematically tracking your journeys for charging purposes. No idea of costs is given for what would be a very complex system compared with the existing one.

Khan has already been accused of making unkeepable and unaffordable promises and then breaking them. He therefore faces a gap in funding, while money is thrown at vanity projects (e.g. see p156-7, The Edible Bus Stop, Pocket Parks and Parklets, Green Street Art. Quick link here)

The overall set of ‘Khangestion Charging’ proposals is effectively seeking a blank cheque for a politically-motivated crackdown on motorists.

Don’t be soft-soaped by words like ‘consider’ – if there is absolutely no desire to go ahead with such proposals, then why are they there? It all rather cheapens Khan's pledge to “maintain the Congestion Charge..." – has this already been forgotten? Remember also that Ken Livingstone was elected on a manifesto only to “consult” over charging, and we know what happened…

There has been a lack of proper publicity for the controversial proposals and even that this crucially important consultation is taking place. Does Mayor Khan have something to hide?

The proposals won’t just affect drivers. If you need to take a taxi to hospital, or are a shopkeeper getting goods delivered, or simply enjoy shopping via Amazon or eBay, you can also expect to pay more.

· OTHER ANTI-MOTORIST POSSIBILITIES

This is the first of four pages outlining the proposals. The second covers: