This makes my blood boil. Kahn is the mayor of London, he can do what he wants in the centre of London, congestion charge this, pollution charge that, extra to park your car if it's not new enough, but extend this out to the north and south circular and you affect a lot of people; many of these people do not have the same personal finance profile of the people in the centre of London, and therefore will struggle with the large financial burden of having their exsisting car devalued to the point of worthlessness and forced to buy a new or nearly new car, or expensive public transport.
The only people who will benefit from this are the people charging car users to use their "old" cars, and car manufacturers and dealers who have us over a barrel. Health benefits will be negligible, as there are still way too many people in London and the south east. I can real off several examples of road infrastructure pollution causing problems that London boroughs do not want to deal with, as they're either not interested, or have been placed in the 'too difficult' pile.
On top of those, highways England want to build a new road through Essex and Kent that will cause even more pollution in one of the most polluted parts of the country, its being done under the guise of eliviating the congestion at the Dartford crossing, but HE's own figures predict that it'll take just 14% of traffic away from Dartford. Only 14%! It'll have grown by more than that buy the time it's built! There are much better solutions that would take a lot more traffic away from Dartford, but seeing as those routes won't open up hundreds of acres of green belt land, for the planned 32.000 new homes in Thurrock, they have been discounted by HE on behalf of the government under the guise of not contributing enough to the local economy....read the government wants the new houses to be built as it's all one big money earner for them.
Whilst all that is going on the NHS in the area is preparing for the pending increase in volume of people and pollution related illnesses (that we're currently bombarded with in the news) by closing hospitals and reducing the amount of healthcare available. They're calling it the "success regime", I reckon I can come up with some more appropriate names.
I can only hope that enough people can stand up and make themselves heard, and get these people who are supposed to work for, and represent the people to actually listen and see sense. People need to oppose Kahns planned extension, I'm sure loads are unaware that possibly in 2 years time they've got to chuck their car away and spend a fortune on a supposedly cleaner new car. I say supposedly because an independent emission testing facility published results that one new diesel SUV currently on sale puts out 15 times the permitted limit when driven in the real world, as opposed to the laboratory testing.
The south east and London has gone mad, if it's not new that it should be binned; well than seems to be the way that loads of people are living their lives. So many people are driving around in a lease/PCP car these days so that they can keep up with the Joneses, and chop it in as soon as the latest model comes out. They're the same with phones, clothes, household electronics, they have no idea how wasteful they are. I'm a carbon footprint ballerina compaired to them, with my ancient fleet of vehicles.....well unless your name is Kahn.
The government should be encouraging the hell out of hybrid and electric vehicles, incentivising industry to provide affordable alternatives to the Tesla, and incentivising the public to buy them, not the mention the getting the infrastructure in place that EVs require. Then let the transition take place as it does when people replace their vehicles, through wear and tear, desire for something new, or for lower running costs. Instead of spending god knows how much putting in place the infrastructure to charge and fine people. Oh hang on minute, that won't make them any money, whilst telling that it's all for our own good.
thanks guys
