from James Millar, director, The Food Ferry
Sir; As the London mayoral elections draw near, the question of congestion charging again raises its head. Mayor Ken Livingstone has hailed the scheme as a success.
This is a somewhat arbitrary conclusion. It has so far cost almost twice as much to run as anticipated and brought in £68m, only a third of the anticipated income.
These topline statistics aside, there is a much bigger question - what is the economic cost?
For my company, The Food Ferry, which delivers groceries across inner London, the cost has been £10,000 in the past year for our fleet of 10 vehicles.
These costs have far outweighed the benefits. We have seen no improvements in speed or our routing.
We have become less competitive, levying a 50p surcharge to cover the charge.
Also, we have had to employ one of our senior managers as Congestion Zone monitor so that daily licences are acquired only for the minimum number of vans, only licensed vans go in to the zone and all drivers understand the rules of the Zone. This has to be done by 10pm daily or we are fined.
That is not all. There has been an increase in parking tickets being issued. Between 1995 and 2003 we received 140 parking tickets, the same number as we have received in the 15 months since congestion charging came in. The reason is plain - private traffic is reduced, leaving the essential traffic as targets for the parking wardens
Over 90% are wrongly issued and routinely cancelled by the council following our appeals.
This is a matter of concern for us all. If the congestion charge is extended, more businesses will suffer and everybody will pay for the consequences.
Sir; As the London mayoral elections draw near, the question of congestion charging again raises its head. Mayor Ken Livingstone has hailed the scheme as a success.
This is a somewhat arbitrary conclusion. It has so far cost almost twice as much to run as anticipated and brought in £68m, only a third of the anticipated income.
These topline statistics aside, there is a much bigger question - what is the economic cost?
For my company, The Food Ferry, which delivers groceries across inner London, the cost has been £10,000 in the past year for our fleet of 10 vehicles.
These costs have far outweighed the benefits. We have seen no improvements in speed or our routing.
We have become less competitive, levying a 50p surcharge to cover the charge.
Also, we have had to employ one of our senior managers as Congestion Zone monitor so that daily licences are acquired only for the minimum number of vans, only licensed vans go in to the zone and all drivers understand the rules of the Zone. This has to be done by 10pm daily or we are fined.
That is not all. There has been an increase in parking tickets being issued. Between 1995 and 2003 we received 140 parking tickets, the same number as we have received in the 15 months since congestion charging came in. The reason is plain - private traffic is reduced, leaving the essential traffic as targets for the parking wardens
Over 90% are wrongly issued and routinely cancelled by the council following our appeals.
This is a matter of concern for us all. If the congestion charge is extended, more businesses will suffer and everybody will pay for the consequences.
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