Boris must scrap this unjust charge

We'd be kidding ourselves to think the congestion charge or its western extension was ever about making journeys faster, or even saving the planet.

It was a vendetta against cars by a mayor who ended up hurting the very people he always claimed to be standing up for. So Boris Johnson's present consultation on whether to keep or change the western extension is welcome.

The charge doesn't just hurt those inside it: the burden falls heavily on those just outside it. too. It causes terrible congestion in my part of London, Hammersmith. Shepherd's Bush Green is essentially a car park now. Worse, it's like a Berlin Wall between us and Kensington. It's a barrier to families from taking their kids to a school just over the border, to the success of local small business and to the expectant mother needing to get to Chelsea & Westminster's maternity unit.

Even more perverse is the tale of the Edward Woods Estate in Shepherds Bush. Cut off from the rest of the borough of Hammersmith & ­Fulham by the West Cross Route and Holland Park roundabout, it sits in the western extension of the zone. This hits some of London's lowest earners with yet another bill of £201.60 a year (their ­residents' discount permit) on top of the rocketing cost of living.

Among the Edward Woods residents are shift workers who need their cars as they cannot rely on public transport at the anti-social hours they start or finish and tradesmen who need vans to carry tools. And I will never blame families for wanting to use their car to ease the burden of the school run or the supermarket trip.

You could say the Edward Woods Estate is no different from anywhere else. It is home to people who want to get on with their lives. But the C‑charge extension places them in an artificial island, hindering them in doing so.
We need to drop the anti-car obsession and accept that people drive. Of course, it is sometimes because they want to – but more often because they need to. More important, the backbone of our local neighbourhoods — our small businesses — need people to drive to them. Londoners sent that message in May, and Boris promised to look again at the western extension. Now it is time to deliver. Come on Boris, tear down this wall and scrap the western C-charge zone.