The area covered by London's congestion charge doubled yesterday to the anger of many residents and businesses, although the city's mayor insisted it would cut emissions and traffic jams.
The &$163;8 (US$15) daily fee for drivers entering the city has been expanded westwards to cover exclusive neighborhoods such as Notting Hill, Kensington and Chelsea, the city's wealthiest enclaves.
Two-thirds of the 230,000 residents oppose the plan, according to the local council.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone, a Labour party member and self-described socialist nicknamed "Red Ken," says the move will cut traffic levels in the area by up to 15 percent and deliver improvements to air quality as well as improving the reliability of buses.
The fee is payable by all drivers entering the zone between 7am and 6pm from Monday to Friday.
`INEFFECTIVE'
Residents of affected neighborhoods -- strongholds for the opposition Conservative party -- say that congestion isn't a problem, and that the mayor's plan is so expensive and ineffective that he would not dare impose it in north and east London, where his voter support is strongest.
Gordon Taylor, chairman of the West London Residents' Association, labeled the move "completely unnecessary."
"Only about 5 percent of the roads in the area are congested," he said. "It's like a surgeon cutting someone open from head to toe when keyhole surgery would do."
FASTER TRAFFIC
Taylor said that West London does not need the fee because it already has faster traffic flow than other parts of the city.
Vehicles move at an average speed of 40kph in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, compared with 16kph in the central charge zone, he said.
The charge "is crude and expensive," Taylor said.
"The boundary itself is like a Berlin Wall: It divides communities, it stops social intercourse, it badly affects businesses," he said.
The London Chamber of Commerce has reported that many businesses within the original zone have seen trade drop off because drivers are put off coming into town by the charge.
LOST SALES
The Center for Economic and Business Research, a London-based consulting firm, estimated in 2005 that as much as £236 million a year of retail sales may be lost in west London because motorists will cut back on shopping trips.
The congestion charge has had no measurable effect on retail sales in central London, Transport for London, the city transportation agency, said in a June report.
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