The C-charge must go nationwide

To a minority of people congestion charging is still seen as the worst disaster to hit London since the Great Plague. But if that's the case, why are so many city leaders from across the world rushing to London to infect themselves?

Places as far apart as San Francisco, Stockholm, Barcelona, Milan and S"o Paulo are starting to look on Ken Livingstone's triumph as an opportunity to rid themselves of congestion.

A year to the day since charging was introduced in central London, congestion is still down by a third, traffic speeds are 10 per cent faster, and 50,000 fewer cars a day are clogging up the city centre.

The concern that congestion charging has damaged retail trade should not be dismissed without proper research. It is inevitable that some have suffered but listen, too, to the London business organisation, London First, which has just published an independent poll showing 58 per cent of firms surveyed saw the impact on the economy as being positive or neutral. Just 26 per cent felt there had been a negative impact on London's economy.

In the past three years there has been a 46 per cent increase in bus use in London and a 36 per cent fall in car trips. London's experience may have been a success but, nationally, car restraint must be one of the most important transport objectives. Without it, the prospect of gridlock will become a reality. Research by the RAC Foundation shows that without charging we will need either five times the amount of road space or a five-fold increase in fuel duty just to keep congestion levels constant.

As a country, we have the worst congestion in Europe and it's getting worse. We are buying more cars than ever before, driving them further as well as using them for the little trips where we used to walk. It can't go on.

It was Bob Kiley and his team who won the day, warning that if Ken turned his back on charging he would be ignoring the one policy lever that would achieve a substantial difference in a short time.

Now the Government must acknowledge the real difficulties faced by local authorities.

It must provide a positive lead and help local politicians to make congestioncharging schemes happen or decide to accept the alternative - to go on living with the problem of congestion.

It needs to recognise that one town is unlikely to introduce congestion charging unless its immediate neighbour - with which it is in competition - does so too. A more regional approach to transport would go a long way to overcoming this problem.

In the longer term, say 10 years, we need to bring in a satellite-based system of charging for car use.

Modelling has shown that, without increasing the tax take to the Exchequer by a single penny, it can cut traffic congestion nationally by up to 44 per cent, eliminate the road fund tax and cut petrol duty.

We do need to answer one fundamental question: with numbers of cars on the roads still rising, being driven further and no space to build more roads or car parks in our city centres, how else are we going to stop our nation driving to a standstill?

First we need to see the Government's public support for other local authorities planning to follow Ken. Then we must see how they are planning to use charging nationwide to rid us all of that congestion plague. This problem can be solved. It's just a question of nerve.