Lynne Featherstone

Agree our News Release for the Evening Standard of our policies to make Congestion Charging better. The headline is our proposal to double the CC charge for 4 x 4s. The point being that figures have just come out on safety etc which put these vehicles in a very poor light. If you are hit by a 4 x 4 you are twice as likely to be killed as by another car. Of course, they also guzzle fuel, hog road space – and quite frankly – look pretty silly for the school run.  However, they are hugely popular with 1 in 7 cars being bought being a 4 x 4 and London buying more than anywhere else in the UK. In Paris they have voted to ban them in the centre. I don’t much believe in banning things – but our proposal is a move to get the Congestion Charging on its way to differentiating between ‘good’ cars and ‘bad’ cars in environmental, safety and health terms.