That’s progress?


New London mayor, Conservative Boris Johnson, has scrapped plans by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, to introduce a £25-a-day congestion charge for the most polluting vehicles, saying that this will save legal costs. How that justification is supposed to be better than tackling climate change, who can say? But all the rich Kensington and Chelsea mothers driving little Tarquin and Princess La-la to school every day in cars the size of lorries will be grateful, no doubt. Bonkers Boris has also scrapped a proposal to allow low emission cars free entry to the congestion charge zone.

“I am delighted that we have been able to scrap the £25 charge, which would have hit families and small businesses hardest,’ said Johnson. Who’s he kidding? How many ordinary families do you know who can afford to run one of those ugly metal monsters?

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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

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Eco-towns: creating a carbon elite won’t help everyone else


Fifty per cent of all households in eco-towns will have to live without cars and those that do have cars will not be able to drive them any faster than 15mph, according to standards for the wave of new towns made public yesterday. Large areas of eco-towns consisting of up to 20,000 homes in each section, will be car-free. Homes will be built no more than 400 metres from a bus or tram stop, and car-sharing schemes will replace car ownership.

There can be no doubt that a move away from making frequent car journeys is not only necessary to help combat rising CO2 emissions, but the money going into the development of the first 10 eco-towns would surely be better spent on improving national public transport services? That way we would all be able to do at least a bit more, instead of a relatively small segment of the UK population being given a hefty culture shock.

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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

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