USEFUL CONGESTION CHARGE INFORMATION AND LINKS The main Greater London Authority (GLA) is London’s elected body. Transport for London (TfL) is the body which manages of all transport in the capital (the Tube will become part of TfL after it is part-privatised). There is a special website managed by TfL for the charge that has a lot of useful information and links to register for exemptions. Look here to see if you’re vehicle is environmentally friendly enough to escape the fee . Look here for an alternative view of the congestion charge.

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 POSTPONEMENT UNISON 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 TRANSPORT At 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 full composite details To read Acrobat PDF files you need Acrobat Reader software, which is available free of charge from the Adobe website in both PC and Mac format.

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