Boris Johnson and Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy were in West London this morning to launch a new, five-week consultation on the future of the Western Extension of the Congestion Charging zone.
The Mayor is asking Londoners to comment on three options, keep the extension, retain a modified version or scrap it altogether. There will also be polling carried out to help determine support for each option. During their visit the Mayor and Mr Hendy met local shoppers and handed out leaflets setting out three option.
The extension was introduced by former Mayor Ken Livingstone in February 2007 and covers most of the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.
Speaking after this morning’s walkabout the Mayor aid “Whenever I head to the west of our city I meet people with strong opinions on the Western Extension. But when my predecessor held a consultation on this important issue he completely ignored its results. Unlike him I have the utmost respect for the opinions of Londoners and I hope that thousands of them will take part in the consultation.”
“I remain to be persuaded on exactly what we should do with the extension so this is a superb opportunity for anyone with an opinion to get involved and help influence my final decision. As well as the obvious options of keeping it or removing it, I would be very keen to know what Londoners think of suggestions such as having a charge-free period during the middle of the day.”
Mayor Johnson refuted suggestions that he was retreating from am implied election promise to scrap the extension and said he had no “dogmatic” stance on the issue which would be decided by the “wisdom of Londoners”.
Labour’s London Assembly transport spokesperson, Val Shawcross, has called on the Mayor to “carefully consider the environmental impact of the western extension – not just in west London but across the city. Pollution and CO2 emissions don’t recognise postcodes and we all breathe the same air. He should be consulting everyone effected by the future of the charge.”
City Hall has said anyone with an opinion on the issue “is invited to take part”.
An information leaflet and questionnaire are available online at tfl.gov.uk/westernextension or by calling 0844 415 4425.
I completely agree with Damian, this is a pointless excercise as the mayor (should) have already decided what he is doing as it was in his election manifesto.
Having just completed the survey I was intrigued to see a question relating to whether TFL should implement an accounting based system for payment. Seems to be a reasonable idea, however having read back through Boris’s manifesto for the election he has stated that he WILL do this, not that he will “consult the public to see if it’s a good idea first”.
Also, these consultations are not accurate statistical measurements. They give an impression of being like a referendum, but with a couple of made up e-mail addresses it’s quite easy to make several entries in favour or against. Also, there is a comments section – who the hell is going to sit there and read all those comments? Have city hall paid for thousands of people to read and analyse them? I suspect not.
Finally, I thought we elect our Mayor to govern, not to keep asking us what we think he should do. If we’re going to do that we would have been better axing the mayor and all his deputies and replacing them with a ‘referendum machine’ that allows the public to vote regularly and make the decisions for London.
At the heart of this surely is the flawed concept of consultation – in the modern era, it means whatever you want it to mean. Amid a ragbag of responses, you will have different groups with agendas and views and no-one ever really specifies whose view counts and what the weight is. Is there any form of weighting? Let’s say that 10,000 individuals, four local authorities and 30 pressure groups/business groups respond, is there some sort of hierarchy? Do 600 OAP responses saying No = 1 local authority saying yes? Is there a Mayoral template (ie if 51% of people write in saying they want to scrap the extension zone, does it go? Or 66%? 80%? 91%). If there are 10,000 responses, how does that play in an electorate of 5 million (or a few hundred thousand in the actual zone)? No-one ever specifies. Which allows the politicians to do what they have already decided. In those circumstances, the former Mayor was able to say that following consultation he was introducing the zone…it is not a referendum, neither is it a poll. It’s, er, people sounding off (and the authorities deciding to do what they have already decided to do, dressed up with the words from those who have submitted consultations – specially those who have been encouraged to submit and who are writing the things which the decision makers wants to hear). Has the outcome already been decided? I would not be surprised…
I am a senior citizen.I live only 100 yards inside the western extention perimeter fence,from my window I can see my friends and relatives whizzing past on the perimeter road,I watch with tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart knowing that they will not come in to see me,due to the charge of £8 levied.I can remember the past,the great big world outside the zone ,the fun and oppertunites to be had in the big outside,now denied to me ie cost.Boris get rid of it asap you promised.you show them your the man.dont bottle it.