Proposed changes to the London Congestion charge have angered car makers Porsche.
The Mayor of London has announced that all cars that emit more than 225g/km of CO2 are going to be charged a whopping £25 a day for setting a foot (or a Pirelli) inside the congestion zone.
Previously these cars were charged £8 a day, so it’s around a 300% increase in cost and German super car maker Porsche is ready for a day in court as it intends to apply for a judicial review of the proposed changes, which Porsche call “unfair and disproportionate”.
All of Porsche’s product both sports cars and SUV’s produce more than 225g/km, so will all be subject to the new £25 a day charge and Porsche Cars GB Managing Director, Andy Goss has said the “massive congestion charge increase is quite simply unjust”.
Porsche have written to Ken Livingstone giving him 14 days in which to respond, but if he fails to do so or if he fails to reconsider the plans to implement the charge, Porsche will submit an application for a judicial review at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Andy Goss raises some good points when he says “Not only is this rise completely unfair to many drivers, but it will also damage London-based businesses of all sizes, and successful people from across the world will start to think twice about basing themselves here (in London) if they think they are going to be used as cash cows for City Hall,” “The proposed increase will be bad for London as a whole and will send out the signal that it is not serious about establishing itself as the best place in the world to do business.”
I guess with countries like Dubai (to name just one) working hard to attract top end businesses to base themselves there and with communications so easy now days, maybe Porsche’s Andy Goss has got it right. Its dead easy to clamp down on everything and to try and create this perfect world, but we all know its just not possible and like Andy Goss, I believe that the Mayor of London is throwing the baby out with the bath water and could well be in danger of doing permanent and un-repairable damage to our major city institutions as the movers and shakers just get totally fed up with this stupid regime.
However, as you would expect, the Mayors office has come out fighting saying “Porsche’s threatened legal action is a double attack on Londoners. First Porsche is trying to deprive Londoners of their democratic right to decide whether they want gas guzzling and polluting cars to drive in London when there is absolutely no need for them to do so,” a spokesperson for the mayor said. “Second it is trying to impose on all Londoners unnecessary levels of pollution and greenhouse gases by a tiny minority. No one is allowed to throw their rubbish in the street and Porsche should not be allowed to impose gas-guzzling polluting cars on Londoners who do not want them.”
That gives you an insight into the type of people in the Mayors office that Porsche are going to have to deal with and certainly it looks like Porsche will have a “rant”, sorry I meant fight on their hands when this all gets to court.
Clearly, there is a lot on the line here and to highlight that, The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Ken Livingstone has told them the new scheme will raise between £30 million to £50 million pounds a year, so perhaps we are getting a little closer to the real reason for these changes and why clearly TFL are going to be very reluctant to change their minds.
Finally, purely out of interest, as you might expect, its London’s 20,000 taxis which are responsible for 24% of fine particle and 12% of NOx pollution in central London and it would be interesting to know similar statistics for the cars that operate in central London (including Porsche’s)
