Congestion Charge Change Could Cover Clapham, Catford & Chiswick!
There used to be a notion that the congestion charge was all about reducing pollution, that it was all part of a masterplan to make London green again. Never mind that the corner of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus is still the most polluted street in the country, or that TFL have spent years punishing hybrid driving Ubers in favour of NoX-fume-pumping diesel-driven black cabs, this was all a crusade on behalf of the environment.
Well now it’s not, as TFL is set to extend the congestion charge to cover the entire area within the North and South Circular, taking the £15 charge zone as far as Balham, Brent Cross, Barking and Brentford, and why? Because it’s skint…
The move is part of a bailout from government. TfL needs a cool £2 billion (yes that’s billion, with a ‘buh’, not a ‘muh’) to cover lost revenue until April 2021 when, they’re for some reason assuming, this will all be over. The bailout comes on top of the previous £1.6bn extra funding that City Hall has already received. And it’s much-needed, with commuters staying out of London and off the tube and busses, the coffers are quickly emptying.
The terms of the deal to save TfL are expected to include an insistence that drivers pay to enter the extended zone that covers much of London’s suburbia with a £15 charge. The Mayor’s office was, by coincidence, planning to whack a £12 charge on anyone with an older car coming into this area from 2021, a move which is already threatening to put him at odds with loyal Sadiq voters.
So extending this to all visitors will likely prove incredibly unpopular with Londoners. Cynically, perhaps this is exactly why Downing Street are pushing for the extension, hoping blame will be pinned on Mayor Sadiq Khan who faces the electorate next spring against an otherwise hardly stellar Tory candidate, Shaun Bailey.
City Hall seems to have accepted punishing Londoners with extra charges to visit ailing relatives or take the kids to school rather than having, y’know, some vision…
Why does this matter? The charge will affect most Londoners, drivers or not, as it will push up the prices of cabs and Ubers, of goods delivered to shops and will also likely increase congestion in the areas outside the zone as new rat-runs develop in residential neighbourhoods much more likely to see children playing, schools and so on.
Of course it won’t be lost on Londoners that at the same time the mayor has his palm outstretched to Downing Street to cover TfL’s shortfall, he’s also directing TfL to complete an expensive set of major changes to streets throughout London in his crusade to make London more cycle-friendly. Traffic has been ground into gridlock across much of South and West London as cycle lanes unexpectedly pop up and bus lanes turn 24/7. Should the extended congestion charge be put into action, expect to see that, um, congestion get even worse.
It’s also notable that TfL is one of London’s biggest landowners, and yet they’ve been so very slow at realising the potential of selling off assets. The small team directed to flog off empty spaces that could be turned into key worker housing or vital retail and at huge profit was actually put on furlough rather than told to double-down on revenue raising. Potentially capable of offsetting the cost of the current bailout, City Hall seems to have accepted punishing Londoners with extra charges to visit ailing relatives or take the kids to school rather than having, y’know, some vision.
Of course, betting that tube travel will be ‘back to normal’ by April might be a stretch. Working patterns are changing, it’s unlikely people will be willing to crowd into densely packed tube carriages once the current pandemic is over. Perhaps, then, they’ll cut out TfL altogether and make use of the new cycle lanes by jumping onto their bicycles…
