'Secret plan' to keep out cars

Mayor Ken Livingstone is working on "secret" plans to prevent motorists driving into London - by rigging the traffic lights, it is claimed today.

His engineers are modifying them so traffic flow into the city can be dramatically reduced via a central computer and drivers will face a "sea" of red lights that will hamper their progress in outer and inner London.

The proposals include allowing longer right turns that hinder main road traffic, more "green light" periods for side roads and longer intervals for pedestrians.

The measures are considered vital by the Mayor to prevent gridlock in inner London when congestion charging begins in February. Without them, unprecedented levels of traffic could build up around the boundary, as drivers divert to avoid the £5-a-day charge. Only by cutting off the flow at the outskirts, critics claim, can congestion charging be proven to "work".

The first effects could be felt in the autumn when drivers are expected to blame delays on the "back to work" flood after the summer, or on roadworks, council schemes and accidents, it is claimed. In fact, their journeys will have been sacrificed to guarantee the success of the Mayor's scheme.

Motoring organisations reacted furiously today. They claimed London was duped into accepting congestion charging without being warned about wider implications.

Kevin Delaney of the RAC Foundation, said: "We said all along that congestion charging could only work if the Mayor increased the capacity of public transport and of the inner ring road. Now it seems the only thing the Mayor is planning to do is hold up traffic much further out. These are secret plans to move congestion from the centre to the rest of London."

The Corporation of the City of London, Westminster council and Kensington and Chelsea led attacks on the plan.

Joe Weiss, the corporation's strategic transportation director, recommended in an internal report that it "demand no artificial choke points be established outside the zone that deter traffic seeking access to the City" as this would have a " deleterious economic effect".

He told the Standard: "This has not been consulted upon. I have frequently asked [the Mayor's body] Transport for London what are the rules of engagement for controlling traffic - and each time I have been pooh-poohed away."

Daniel Moylan, Kensington and Chelsea's deputy leader, claimed that on routes leading out of London traffic lights will "open up like a tap" to prevent cars from clogging up the inner ring road, with "dire consequences" for traffic on side roads and pedestrians.

Charles Cronin, Westminster council's cabinet member for transport, said: "Public transport can never perform as well as the car so they want to drag everything down to the same level."

Sources claim scores of traffic lights have already been adapted to facilitate the "stranglehold", with new microprocessors costing around £200 each. One said: "This is macro-control of traffic to ensure you have a 'doughnut' of congestion around the outside to stop people reaching the inside. Initially it will be just a few seconds and motorists will scarcely notice. But the full effect will gradually be wound up to hold traffic back so there are fewer vehicles in central London."

Worst-hit will be drivers making local journeys such as school runs in between the inner ring road that marks out the charging zone boundary - and the north and south circulars. Congestion will not be allowed to hinder buses, however. There will be more bus lanes and special junctions allowing buses to circumvent queues. More will have transponders that turn lights green when they approach.

TfL denies that it has "secret plans" to stifle traffic flow to ensure the success of congestion charging. A spokesman insisted that although traffic lights were being linked to a central computer, this was to eradicate congestion.

He denied traffic would be rationed at key entry points and said although some new light phasing would be introduced it would not be as early as the autumn. "There is no secret about this - it is all in published reports to the Mayor," said the spokesman. "Any suggestion we are doing this to make it look like congestion charging is working is not true."