Mayor rejects London Congestion zone extension plans

A bid by TfL to increase the area covered by the London congestion charging zone has been rejected by the Mayor of London.

The news has been reported by the BMF, which is stating that had the plan have gone ahead, an estimated four million Londoners – many of whom will be on two-wheels – would have been subject to the £15 per day charge.

The current London Congestion Zone stretches from Clerkenwell in the north to Vauxhall in the South, with the proposed extension pushing that out as far as the North and South Circular roads - almost doubling the size of the affected area.

The proposal proved so unpopular a petition was started on Change.org to try and halt the plans. It garnered more than 150,000 signatures.

The extension was being proposed to combat the drop in revenue TfL has seen in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. With more and more people shunning public transport in favour of a more socially distanced method of getting around, the extra tax on us commuters was drawn up.

Thankfully, an unlikely saviour has stepped up in the form of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan quashing the idea. Instead, he proposes that a new raft of TfL fare rises will take place in the new year.

He said:

“I am pleased that we have succeeded in killing off the very worst government proposals... These proposals from the government would have hammered Londoners by massively expanding the congestion charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners, and increasing TfL fares by more than RPI+1. I am determined that none of this will now happen."