I am invited to address the AGM of the London Transport Users Committee together with Bob Kiley.

That morning a piece had appeared in The Times saying that Kiley, fully supported by Mayor Ken, wants to extend congestion charging to hotspots right across London. The charge would be electronically managed by ‘tag and beacon’ so that the driver with a tag in their car would automatically be debited as the car passed a beacon. What’s more the article also states that they are thinking of this for the congested North and South Circulars.

Now, the Liberal Democrats have been advocating for some time that instead of the westward extension to the central congestion charging zone, the Mayor needs to target congestion – much of which exists outside the central area.

When the GLA’s Transport Committee (which I chair) did some polling in six boroughs outside of the centre, including Haringey, we found that peoples’ tolerance to a charge went up in direct correlation to their experience of congestion on their particular daily journeys. Congestion in their view wasn’t about large areas but about particular roads or town centres at particular times of the day. So – our recommendations were that any extension of the charge should be by electronic technology and target such hot spots and times.

So – given the opportunity to challenge Bob – I did so – not only on the veracity of the report, but also to make clear that any suggestion of effectively tolling the North Circular was ludicrous and would send vehicles rat-running through residential roads like there was no tomorrow. Muswell Hill and Bounds Green are deluged with rat-running as it is.

Bob was backtracking fast and saying he was just raising the debate. I said that was a good thing to be doing as everyone in London knew that congestion was worse outside zone 1, but put a few riders on the whole issue.

Firstly – any decision on where needed sorting out should be the decision of the borough itself with the consent of local people. Boroughs must be king in this.

Secondly – that the provision of buses into the central zone that made the first congestion charge possible meant that there would have to be an equivalent spend on public transport in any area into which a charge was being introduced – otherwise if no extra public transport alternatives were provided it would simply be a levy on car usage.

Thirdly – that any measure that were brought in must be predicated on the basis that they were entirely about reducing congestion and nothing to do with revenue raising per se.

So – we shall see. I then got to address LTUC as Chair of Transport to tell them what the Assembly expected and hoped for from them as an organisation. Seemed to go down well. I must say, having listened to them questioning Kiley, they seem a very bright bunch and I do have great hopes for them being effective champions for the public.