The last Mayor’s Question Time of this term of office.

Half of Kensington and Chelsea had turned up to witness the presentation of a 30,000 petition to Ken not to proceed with his proposed extension to the congestion charge westwards. The Lib Dems have also come out against the proposed extension. In brief the Mayor has just got it wrong and not thought it through.

I pointed out to the Mayor during the session that:

a] one year’s figures are not enough to soundly make decisions because the economic, business and social impacts are still not clear

b] as the proposed extension is not a second zone but an enlargement of the first zone it runs the risk of destabilising the first zone by giving the residents of K & C free entry to the first zone

c] the boundary is wrongly sited

d] the demography is wrong: two thirds of the area is residential

e] the cost is £100million to set up (money the Mayor doesn’t have) and there would be no revenue from the scheme