Porsche FTW - London scraps £25 congestion charge
The battle over a proposed £25 Congestion Charge increase that would have been socked to big, dirty vehicles entering London is over. Porsche was the lead opponent of this fee increase, and announced the win on its Judicial Review website. I guess Porsche's huge PR campaign worked. Back when Ken Livingstone, who came up with the £25 congestion charge proposal, was still Mayor of London, the city announced that the majority was in favor of it. Porsche had other data.
The new mayor, Boris Johnson, was never in favor of the new C-Charge, so it's not a huge surprise that it's been scraped. He said he hopes the city will now institute a 'fairer and more effective' Congestion Charge. The agency responsible for the Congestion Charge, Transport for London, will now need to pay Porsche's legal bills. Porsche has said it will donate the money to Skidz, an anti-crime charity. h/t to TheRookie.
[Source: Porsche, What Car?, Times Online]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hugh 10:00AM (7/08/2008)
One less oppressive tax! Thank you Porcshe, out there fighting for the little guy-----er something like that.
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Snark 12:09PM (7/08/2008)
So a foreign-owned company succeeds in meddling with the laws and substantially affecting an election, and it's greeted with uninformed anti-tax rah-rah?
Corporations don't get a vote. They have no prerogative to participate in the political process, and they arrogate to themselves far too much political sway. Why this is greeted with weak populist cheering is beyond me - if there's anything that truly threatens the little guy, it's corporate influence on government.
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Charlie 3:22PM (7/08/2008)
Snark...
the congestion charge was already 8 pounds ($16) a day. WIth no options for a monthly pass for people who have to drive through the effected area of London frequently. Yes, London has a decent public transportation system, but it has many of the same problems as other public transportation systems... its crowded, hot, and obviously not ideal for carrying large packages or small children. Now to raise that to a $50 a day tax on people who have cars that actually have the ability to carry large packages or a whole family? And at the same time a removal of the $16/day charge on smaller cars, which independent research shows will lead to an INCREASE in first obviously congestion, but also CO2 emissions? It reeks of class warfare and political posturing that even the "little guy" can agknowledge as senseless.
By all means, congestion charges, especially in an extremely crowded and organizationally-challenged city like London can be a good thing... if they target what they are good at targeting: congestion. The UK already has plenty of tax disincentives to purchasing large and gas-guzzling cars, including a tax on new cars that scales up based on CO2 emissions and high taxes on gasoline itself.
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