Londoners back Bailey pledge to reverse congestion charge
Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has today submitted a petition to City Hall calling on Sadiq Khan to reverse the hike to the congestion charge.
Bailey also said that he would undo the increase on the first day of his mayoralty, should he be elected next year.
The petition, which has been signed by 43,000 Londoners, comes after the charge was increased to £15 yesterday, a 30 per cent rise on the previous £11.50 tariff.
In addition, the charge’s operating hours have been extended to include the weekend, instead of the normal working week as before.
Khan was forced to reimplement the congestion charge as a condition of the government’s £1.6bn bailout of Transport for London, which has seen its finances decimated by the coronavirus.
The charge had been temporarily suspended to allow key workers to get to work amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The government’s conditions also called on the mayor to bring forward proposals to widen the scope of the charge, which prompted Khan to announce the fare hike.
Bailey said he feared the charge would undermine public health and hold back the capital’s economic recovery.
“Countless Londoners will drive to work this week. They’ll be small-business owners, police officers, teachers, the people who keep this city running. And they’ll all be hit with the Mayor’s new congestion charge of £15 a day, seven days a week”, he said.
‘Half of London’s economic activity takes places in central London or within one square mile of it. We shouldn’t make life more difficult for the people who work there”.
Bailey has previously said that the parlous nature of TfL’s funding was down to mismanagement by Khan, but the mayor has contested the claims, pointing to the fact that the operator’s deficit had been reduced 71 per cent over his four year term.
A Mayor of London spokesperson said: “The Government was absolutely clear that TfL must bring forward proposals to widen the level and scope of the Congestion Charge. If Assembly Member Bailey doesn’t like it he needs to raise this with the Government.
“Social distancing requirements mean that public transport can only carry a fraction of the number of passengers compared to pre-pandemic levels – even when TfL are back to running completely full services.
“While capacity on the network needs to be preserved for those people who need it most, we can’t allow journeys that were previously taken on public transport to be replaced with car trips.
“We were already seeing a surge in car traffic, which had reached pre-lockdown levels before the temporary changes were introduced, so we needed to act immediately to avoid the risk of the city grinding to a halt and toxic air pollution soaring.
“The temporary Congestion Charge changes introduced this week are supporting our world-leading Streetspace for London programme, which will make it easier and safer for Londoners to walk and cycle and keep the bus network reliable for those who need to use it.”