Local business crippled by congestion charge

by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
30/05/2008

Traders on the edge of the congestion charge zone have joined a council campaign to ditch the invisible toll barrier once and for all.

When the western extension of the zone was imposed in February 2007, Hammersmith & Fulham Council predicted that residents and businesses on the periphery of the zone would be hit the hardest. 

Unlike people inside the extended zone, businesses and residents in H&F are not eligible for a discount. This means that, for the past 18 months, H&F residents have been forced to fork out £8 every time they’ve done the school run, visited the hospital or had to access other basic local services. 

Now a council probe shows that small businesses – like estate agents, dry-cleaners and florists – are losing thousands of pounds each year to make trips of less than a mile. 

Nadine Kline, of Green Florist, 125 Shepherds Bush Road, said: "The congestion charge extension really has affected our delivery service and in many cases it is actually cheaper for us to send our deliveries by taxi rather than paying the £8 congestion charge ourselves. 

“If we have a delivery to make to Holland Park for example, and tell the customer that they will need to pay the £8 congestion charge they go elsewhere, so it is better for us to use a taxi. I think the charge is very unfair on small and medium sized businesses."

The council is now calling on Transport for London (TfL) to give small businesses and local residents a reprieve by scrapping the extension once and for all.

Councillor Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, says: “The west extension of the congestion charge zone has caused parking gridlock and outrage in west London. The extension has been a body blow for local business and this must be the end of the road for this failed project.

“We are calling on TfL to scrap the extension now before more damage is done to local traders.”

The extension, which cost £123 million to put in, covers Kensington, Chelsea, Bayswater, Notting Hill, Pimlico and Belgravia. Two days before the zone doubled, on 19 February 2007, hundreds of protestors took to the streets in a ‘go slow’ to demonstrate against the extension.

Lana Kova, Lettings Manager at Tauntons Estate Agent, 95 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, said: "Our office is based outside of the congestion charge zone and unfortunately we have had to give up some of our properties inside the zone in places such as Holland Park and Bayswater. We are a small independent estate agent and we can't afford to pay the £8 congestion charge just to show properties to customers. It is such a shame because we have had to give up nice properties in areas that we would have liked to expand into."

People who live within the congestion zone get a 90 per cent discount, unlike H&F residents and businesses who get nothing. Taxis, buses, motorbikes, and emergency vehicles are fully except as are disabled drivers and vehicles powered by alternative fuels.

Last year, drivers handed over £252 million in congestion charge payments to TfL, which represents just under 10 per cent of its total income. Running the scheme cost £130 million and when administration costs are taken into account, TfL was left with a net income of £89 million from the charges. 

Cllr Botterill added: “We always questioned whether the extension was more about making money than reducing congestion. When the extension came in, The London Chamber of Commerce demanded an independent inquiry into whether the zone was needed. They called the scheme ‘flawed’ and an ‘inflexible barrier to trade’ and now their view is proving to be correct. 

“The people who are paying are on the periphery of the zone and they will continue to suffer until this invisible toll barrier is removed.”

TfL are expected to have a binding referendum on the issue possibly later this year.