| Congestion charging | London |
Porsche has stated in a letter from its lawyers to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, that it intends to proceed with its request for a judicial review of the increased Congestion Charge prices.
The Mayor will have 21 days to acknowledge the claim from the German sports car maker. Managing director of Porsche Cars GB, Andy Goss, said: "The new £25 charge will have no meaningful impact on congestion and Transport for London's own figures show the anticipated carbon dioxide emissions savings in a year could be equivalent to less than four hours of emissions at Heathrow.
"All it will do is unfairly hit large numbers of drivers in London and undermine London's attractiveness as a place to do business."
However, Porsche was condemned by the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), which says Porsche is trying to prevent a necessary and progressive transport measure. Richard Bourn, the London Campaigner for CBT said: "Porsche is trying to justify the unjustifiable by acting for the unrestrained used of gas guzzling cars in London. There is no reason why people should drive around city centres in vehicles that do 15 miles per gallon and greatly increase climate change."
Alisdair Suttie - 12 Mar 2008