An MP is attempting to outlaw a suggestion from London Mayor Sadiq Khan that motorists from outside the capital should pay £3.50 per day to drive within the boundaries.
KentOnline quotes Dartford MP Gareth Johnson as describing the idea as “catastrophic and mad” and that he’s pushing to introduce a bill to rule that the Mayor may not introduce such a tax.
“[The charge] is aimed at vehicles registered outside of London and so will hit London’s neighbours the hardest, but it will also impact on businesses based in outer London as far fewer people will travel into the capital to use them – it therefore will create a financial wall around London,” Johnson told the website.
“The proposed daily charge of £3.50 would amount to more than a thousand pounds a year for those crossing the border on a daily basis. The border with Greater London is not neat, it runs through residential roads and thousands of people would be hit by this charge just for driving out of their own road. This proposal would impose a form of taxation on people who have no say on who the London Mayor is so it is quite literally a form of taxation without representation or accountability.”
His proposed Ten Minute Rule Bill reads “Road User Charging (Outer London) Bill: A Bill to provide that the Mayor of London may not impose charges for driving in Outer London; and for connected purposes.”
The Mayor says the charge may be needed to fill a hole in Transport for London’s finances since tube and bus passenger numbers fell when the Government introduced lockdown. The Mayor’s office told KentOnline, “”If the government does not agree, other ways of raising money to overcome the unprecedented financial challenges TfL faces as a result of Covid may be needed.”
(Picture – Yay Images)
