Congestion Reduced Thus Congestion Charge Reduced? Sadly Not… September 7th, 2009
I see in the news today that official research has shown that over the last 2 years, congestion in the UK has dropped by almost a third, research into this by Trafficmaster and AA/Populus has cited this to be because of the recession that we are currently in. Makes sense, what with the unemployment level and more and more people working from home in a bid to save money. The research goes on to say that this is the first tangible decrease in congestion in over 20 years.
So my question is why has the London Congestion Charge not been reduced accordingly? According to the official website, the charge was bought about to tackle congestion and is not some hidden tax, all net profit has to be reabsorbed into improving the transport infrastructure in London. Now surely if congestion has decreased then this decrease should also be carried across to the charge we have to pay? After all, we are in recession so every penny we as tax payers can save is going to help where it matters.
Those of us who have need to travel into London on a regular basis will know that no amount of spiel will convince us that this is not a money making scheme, have the roads been improved? Not really. Has the charge made a huge difference to congestion and thus the amount of time it takes to get from A to B? Not really. So what do we actually gain from paying this charge? Come on Boris, sort it out.
The London Congestion Charge, just another stealth tax.
