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London's 15 entry fee
Page 11
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• by Guy Sheppard Haulage leaders are mounting a last-ditch attempt to prevent trucks being charged 25 to enter central London before details of congestion-busting schemes are finalised later this year.
The Freight Transport Association has submitted a report outlining the damage the charge will do to business and suggesting a simple way for all CVs to be exempted.
FTA regional director John Gutteridge is calling for a public inquiry to look at the potential impact which, he says, has been grossly underestimated: "Commercial vehicles operate on London streets because they simply must—you cannot deliver pallet loads of goods by taking them onto a bus or the tube." One of the strongest arguments against exempting CVs is that car commuters would switch to light vans to avoid the charge. But the FTA paper says this could be stopped if operators of vehicles below 3.5 tonnes, which are not covered by 0-licences, paid an annual registration fee of 250 plus a further DO for each vehicle to be exempted: "Such a process could deter the abuse of the system by commuters and provide a degree of revenue to the Mayor."
A spokesman for London Mayor Ken Livingstone says the proposed CV fee has already been cut from £15 and transport operators will benefit from a reduction of traffic of between 10-15%. "We would argue that we have been through a clear, lengthy and thorough consultation process already," he adds. Details of the scheme are now being finalised to meet the deadline for launching the scheme in early 2003.