Congestion charge suspended over Christmas

Tuesday, 19 October 2004 12:00 AM

The Mayor of London has confirmed that the congestion charge will be suspended between Christmas and New Year.

Drivers will not have to pay the £5 charge from December 25th to January 3rd.

Announcing the decision, which follows public consultation, Ken Livingstone, said: "The suspension of the congestion charge, coupled with the post-Christmas sales, will benefit visitors and businesses over the period."

The decision was welcomed by the London Retail Consortium. Its spokesman told politics.co.uk that shopping in London at Christmas is an important part of the cultural experience of the city, and they "warmly welcome" the Mayor's decision to recognise this.

He went to say that though the effect on direct sales might not be massively significant, the general effect of making London an "easy and pleasurable" place to shop within the busy period when public transport is not running at full capacity was "fantastic", and they hoped the Mayor would now look at extending the principle to other important periods.

On the political front, both the London Liberal Democrats and London Conservatives welcomed the decision, with the Liberal Democrats pointing out that it was a promise contained in their candidate's election manifesto.

Their transport spokesman, Lynne Featherstone, said: "The scrapping of the charge between Christmas and New Year will come as a welcome boost for shoppers and businesses in the capital.

"For many traders the first week of the New Year sales is a make or break time that can be the difference between survival and demise.

"Now that Mr Livingstone has seen the benefit to traders that scrapping the charge between Christmas and New Year will bring, it is now time he reduced the hours the C-Charge operates from 6.30pm to 5pm to help the arts, the restaurants and the bars in the West End."

Conservative LGA transport spokesman, Angie Bray, said: "This has been done to help the January sales. We welcome it, but it is an acceptance of how damaging the congestion charge is to business for the rest of the year."

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