Mayor 'misled public'

Transport for London today stands accused of trying to mislead the public over the level of support for a controversial £648 million tram scheme.

More than 17,000 people responded to an official consultation on the plans for the West London Tram, with almost 60 per cent against the project.

But TfL tried to disguise the level of opposition by commissioning a separate survey of 817 people, which generated a three-to-one majority in favour.

This allowed Mayor Ken Livingstone to claim the public consultation - the biggest such exercise ever undertaken by TfL - was "skewed" because only opponents bothered to take part.

Now new documents have raised questions over the significance of the survey, which was undertaken for TfL by market research firm Synovate.

The company carried out interviews in six west London boroughs and in South Buckinghamshire.

But it admitted that in four of the areas, the number of people questioned was too small to make its findings "robust". Synovate interviewed-67 people in Kensington-and Chelsea, 47 in Brent, 40 in South Bucks and 32 in Hounslow. It warned TfL: "The information for these boroughs should be treated as indicative and not as statistically significant."

Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat chairwoman of the London Assembly transport committee, accused TfL of using "smoke and mirrors" and said it was another occasion in which the Mayor had refused to bow to widespread opposition.

Evening Standard reported yesterday how the Mayor defied advisers to go ahead with increasing the £5 congestion charge to ?8 on 4 July.

Ms Featherstone said: "Mr Livingstone's second term as Mayor has already been littered with numerous occasions where he has left himself increasingly cut off from what people in London really want.

"In the face of such hostility towards the tram, the Mayor should pause for thought."

Anthony Lewis, of Save Ealing's Streets, said: "There is frustration and anger that objections to the scheme have been ridden roughshod over."

The tram would run 13 miles along Uxbridge Road via Ealing and would require the closure of part of Shepherd's Bush roundabout and the re-routing of west-bound traffic from Acton High Street.

The Mayor says the tram, which would carry four to eight million passengers a day, is essential to prevent the congested Uxbridge Road coming to a halt.

But opponents say that with Uxbridge Road carrying 27,000 vehicles a day, huge amounts of traffic would be diverted through residential areas.

Business lobby group London First said it could not back the scheme as it shadowed much of the proposed Crossrail train line and was not a priority for limited cash. The CBI and the London Chamber of Commerce were also opposed.

A TfL spokeswoman denied the survey was flawed. She said it provided a valuable insight into the views of residents who failed to respond to the formal consultation.