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Londoners must get ready for the congestion charge which the mayor, Ken Livingstone, is introducing on 17 February. But the critics are already calling for a postponement, says Gary Flood
All charged up
UNISON members who drive in and out of central London need to speed up
their preparations for Ken Livingstone’s controversial congestion
charging scheme.
17 February sees the start of the traffic-calming system, designed to
cut the amount of traffic entering the clogged roads of central London
by 15%.
The charge is also set to generate £130m a year ring-fenced for
public transport improvements.
Critics say the charge is going to hit low-paid workers, especially those
in the public sector (see box, right), where they can least afford it.
NHS workers in particular are said to be unhappy that they don’t
get any leeway for driving into the zone for work.
The Tory transport spokesman Eric Pickles has labelled the charge ‘the
toll tax’.
Click here to have your say on the London congestion charge and read
other members' comments.
The nay-sayers are also scandalised by the amount said to have been spent
on setting the scheme up. Transport for London, the department of the
Greater London Authority handling the system, admit to a bill of £200m;
newspaper reports say the real figure, when consultancy fees are taken
into consideration, could be three times as much, or well over half a
billion pounds.
But London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone, is adamant.
"My aim is to maintain London's position as a world class city.
The provision of better and more reliable transport facilities is key
to achieving that aim, as well as improving the quality of life in the
capital for both Londoners and tourists."
His office says average traffic speeds in central London are now under
ten miles per hour throughout the working day, while recent research shows
traffic congestion is the number one transport issue Londoners want tackled.
The scheme will see drivers paying £5 to enter the zone, which
at eight square miles (21 square kilometres) represents a small but crucial
1.3% of the total 617 square miles (1,579 square kilometres) of Greater
London.
The fiver’s going to be charged all weekdays with Saturdays, Sundays,
New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Christmas Day and bank holidays excepted.
Hours of operation are 7am to 6.30pm.
Unlike the Tube or other forms of London public transport, you don’t
get any discount for buying in advance. The licence costs £5 per
day, every day, so that’s £25 for five days, 20 consecutive
charging days (a four week licence) is £100, and one for 252 consecutive
charging days (the annual licence) is £1,260.
Paying the charge means you can come in and out of the charge zone as
many times as you need to on the day you’ve paid. Tickets will be
on sale until 10pm on the day in question and at any time in advance for
a chosen date.
Drivers only have a few weeks left to register for exemptions and discounts
for residents, so now’s a good time to get cracking (see web links
box on left). There is a £10 annual charge payable in advance for
all exemptions.
If you have an Orange disabled badge - which is being replaced by the
European standard blue badge at the moment - you will be exempt from the
charge for up to two vehicles per day (ie you can register two vehicles
for your use).
The vehicle could include a vehicle registered to a carer, friend or
relative who drive the disabled individual as well.
Good news if you’re a two-wheeler - motorbikes, mopeds and bicycles
are all automatically exempt, and don’t need to be registered.
If you are a resident you will get a 90% discount – you still need
to pay the £10 annual charge, though, and can only register one
vehicle for this purpose. You have to be on the electoral register in
a relevant area to qualify.
If you are an NHS staffer, as we said, there’s no let-off for just
getting to and from work.
Still, Transport for London will refund NHS employers for charges incurred
and paid by NHS staff (including locum and agency staff) for vehicles
used on journeys carrying bulky, heavy or fragile equipment, confidential
patient notes, controlled drugs and certain other materials, and for NHS
staff on call to provide services required in consequence of an emergency.
The charge may also be another reason to go green in the garage. There
are a whole bunch of alternative fuel cars that are excluded from the
charge (see box, left, for more information): a 100% discount once you’ve
paid that all important £10 registration fee well in advance.
They include all gas, electric, fuel cells and bi/dual fuel vehicles.
Models include the Nissan Almera, Vauxhall Vectra and Toyota Prius. But,
but, but – Ken doesn’t class the Smart Car as green, so it’s
liable.
All emergency vehicles - police, fire, ambulance and lifeboat vehicles
- are exempt, as are vehicles carrying NHS patients to hospital or for
certain appointments, or for people classed as too ill to attend appointments
on regular public transport.
By the way, don’t let any unscrupulous cab drivers, especially if
you’re just a visitor to the capital, fool you. No black cab needs
to pay – and no minicab registered with the Mayor’s office either.
And if you don’t pay? Expect an £80 penalty each time for
failure to comply, reduced to £40 if you pay up within a fortnight.
That rises to £120 if you don’t settle up in time – and
there are 230 video cameras being put in place now, backed up by a new
expensive IT system, to catch you.
It remains to be seen if the charge will work. It’s certainly a
huge gamble on Livingstone’s part, and it has just emerged that one
of his closest allies, transport commissioner Bob Kiley, tried to get
him to drop the plan or risk losing his mayorship in the 2004 London elections.
What is certain is that many UK cities are quietly keeping an eye on
how the charge fares, and are said to be planning their own similar programmes.
Like it or not the charge will be a factor in Londoners lives in a few short weeks. No-one seems to be in favour. Yet what’s the alternative? There may be no palatable answer to the issue of traffic congestion, but can anyone say that nothing should be done?
Click here to have your say on the London congestion charge and read other members' comments
UNISON CALLS FOR CHARGE’S POSTPONEMENTUNISON is worried that the congestion charge is
being pushed in too quickly and will impact too many low-paid public
sector workers. It’s calling for Livingstone to suspend its
introduction until this aspect of the charge has been further looked
into. “UNISON’s members working in central London’s
Hospitals, local councils and Universities provide vital public
services in already difficult circumstances,” worries its Greater
London regional secretary, Nick Wright. “The use of a car is not a luxury for many UNISON members. It is either the only realistic way to get to work or to carry out their jobs in the community. The £5 a day charge will be an additional
unwanted burden, he adds. UNISON represents 130,000 public sector workers
working in the Greater London area, and is the capital’s largest
trade union. The union’s highlighting the dilemma of people
like UNISON member, Susan Usher, who works at the Moorfield’s
Eye Hospital, on the boundary of the congestion charging zone. She drives to work so that she can take her two
young children to a child minder and reach the hospital by 9.00am.
This journey is not possible on public transport. Because of the introduction of the congestion charge,
she will have to pay £25 a week, more than £1200 a year,
to get to work. As a result, she says, she's decided to quit the
NHS and find a job outside the zone. UNISON fears that many more cases like Susan will emerge over the next few months because of congestion charging. With only small groups of public sector workers
being exempt from the charge, UNISON fears the consequences for
central London’s already overstretched services. “I’m sure Ken Livingstone didn’t
intend to force public services workers out of their jobs, but we
fear that the trickle of resignations from vital, frontline services
will become a flood when congestion charging begins in February. “The vast majority of public sector workers
are not well paid and the effective freezing of London Weighting
by many employers has compounded the problems of recruitment and
retention. “On this occasion Ken may have got it wrong.” UNISON POLICY ON INTEGRATED TRANSPORTAt UNISON's National Delegate Conference in June 2002, Composite C (Integrated Public Transport - motions 23, 24 and amendments 23.1) was carrried. Conference accepted that transport is vital to the social and economic life of the country. However, real social and economic progress can only be made where all modes of transport are fully integrated and serve the people at reasonable cost. A fully integrated transport system should link air, bus, rail and ferry and should acknowledge and accommodate the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. UNISON supports the principle of congestion charging provided the details are right. Click here to download a PDF with the To read Acrobat PDF files you need Acrobat Reader software, which is available free of charge from the |
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