The congestion charge is one of the biggest scams — maybe the biggest scam —
pulled on the public by the authorities in my lifetime. When I first heard
about it, I assumed it was a joke. We already pay income tax, local rates,
road tax, the MoT, tax on petrol and Vat on everything from engine oil to
new tyres, just to be allowed to drive our cars on shitty, potholed and
congested roads. None of us wants to drive into London anyway, and when you
do have to do so there is nowhere to park. If and when you do find somewhere
to park, it’s like a mugging.
So here was someone suggesting that on top of the tax and the rates and the
road tax and the petrol tax and the car parking, we should pay £5 a day
(initially) and now a momentous £8 for the privilege of enduring this
nightmare. Who in their right minds would want to drive in London if they
had a viable choice? That’s £8 a day — £40 for a five-day working week,
£2,000 a year — just to be able to drive to work (where we will pay income
tax) in London!
Having realised, eventually, the proposal was not intended as a joke, I still
thought I could afford to find it amusing because I knew no one would vote
for it. Who would volunteer to pay a tax to be able to do something they
don’t want to do anyway? But that, if I may be allowed to say so, was
uncharacteristically naive of me.
What I hadn’t instantly understood is that the people who would be voting
would not be the people who would be paying. The people who would be voting
would largely be the people who live inside the zone and therefore do not
pay the full tax. These people were being asked to vote for whether someone
else should pay a tax from which they would be largely exempt, and indeed
would benefit. That’s a much easier one.
Collecting the tax also introduces a whole new way in which the rest of us are
spied on, monitored and oppressed by the authorities, and shows no mercy.
Cross the line one minute before 6pm without having paid the charge, and
you’re going to pay a fine. It’s ruthless, it’s relentless, it’s anything
else unpleasant beginning with r.
Grumpy Old Drivers by Stuart Prebble is published by Orion at £9.99. Copies
can be ordered for £9.49 including postage from The Sunday Times BooksFirst
on 0870 165 8585
The Congestion Charge was one of the worst ever scams to actually come from this failed period of New Labour rule - really just making highway robbery legal. Good riddance to Red Ken recently and to this governmant at the next election.
D Jennings, Sheffield, UK
"What I hadn’t instantly understood is that the people who would be voting would not be the people who would be paying". Here in Manchester I know of at least one example of a person who lives north of the proposed zone and drives to work in Wigan but intends to vote yes. (I use public transport!)
Richard, Manchester, England
Totally agree, I paid the congestion charge last week not knowing if I had or hadn't entered the zone, I'm assumming that i did though as they happily took my payment. I'd like to know how many people have paid and not been in and why isn't this automatically refunded?
Stuart Bond, Chatham,