Go-ahead for £5 car charge

Ken Livingstone is to go ahead with his controversial scheme for charging motorists £5 to drive into London.

In what is a massive gamble for the capital - and for the Mayor himself - he will sign the legal order at 10am tomorrow to make his radical plan to tackle gridlock a reality. It will mean drivers paying £25 a week to enter the designated central London zone between 7am and 6.30pm.

The area will be policed by a "ring of cameras" which read car registration plates. Those who enter the zone have 24 hours to pay at selected sites or on a telephone hotline. Those who fail to do so will be fined up to £80.

The proposed central zone would be bounded by the "Inner Ring Road" - linking Euston Road, Pentonville Road, Tower Bridge, Elephant & Castle, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Park Lane and Marylebone Road.

The formal decision marks the end of a three-month consultation period in which thousands of views have been sought and studied. The Mayor now hopes the scheme will be running by next Easter. Mr Livingstone chose to test the scheme in this way despite critics insisting it should have been considered by a public inquiry.

While the Mayor must keep an "open mind" up until the point that the order is signed, he has heard nothing so far that would stop him from giving the scheme his blessing. He hopes the charge will cut congestion by up to 15 per cent but sees other benefits too.

The measure is expected to raise at least £130million and will give Mr Livingstone a reliable revenue stream. Charging also allows him to claim one major political success during his first term.

Councils such as Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth have discussed a legal challenge. Kennington Association campaigners said the charge would force drivers to divert through Vauxhall and Kennington with disastrous results for schools, residents and commuters.

Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey said: "The whole scheme is a complete nonsense that will ruin this community." Westminster council deputy leader Kit Malthouse also claimed traffic flow across Vauxhall Bridge would become "horrendous". However, Professor Colin Goodwin, of University College, London, today claims the charge would raise £200million a year. Figures from Mr Livingstone's Transport for London organisation, state new bus lanes, speed cameras, better enforcement and traffic signal improvements would produce between £25m-£50m a year.

Meanwhile, ministers today begin studying a report which advocates using satellite technology to charge drivers up to 45p a mile for every journey in Britain. Bills would be paid monthly, road tax scrapped, and fuel duty reduced.

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