February 10, 2008

Porsche, the luxury car maker, is challenging Ken Livingstone’s proposed change to the congestion charge, due to take effect in October.

The changes will see the Congestion Charge change name to the CO2 charge THE NAME CHANGE IS NOT GOING TO SNARE THEM – the increase will!

The charge applies to new vehicles that emit more than 225g of CO2 per KM and so will snare all but two of Porsche’s range of gas-guzzling sports cars. Given that drivers in the Congestion charge zone spend most of their time sitting still at traffic lights, taking your Porsche into town seems like pure indulgence anyway, so we say let them be charged!

For what it’s worth, the grounds of Porsche's appeal are that the increase is "unjust and disproportionate". They claim that there should be some form of sliding scale up to the new top band.

Porsche has received muted support from mayoral challenger Boris Johnson, who fell short of backing the challenge, although did say that he “understood where Porsche were coming from”.

It is hard to see the appeal going much further because the mayoral elections take place in May. If Livingstone gets re-elected he will be able to claim that he's got the backing of the people so unless Porsche goes to the high court its difficult to see how they can win their case. Shame.

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