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The Times

July 04, 2002

Challenge to London congestion charge

By Frances Gibb, Legal Editor

TWO people are to challenge in the High Court the plan by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to charge motorists in Central London £5 a day.

Cathy Preece and Gareth Adamson, acting for themselves and the Kennington Association, won permission yesterday to join Westminster Council in its bid to block the project. Ms Preece lives in Kennington Lane, Lambeth, southeast London, and Mr Adamson just off Kennington Lane. They argue that the congestion charges will increase traffic near their homes, which are on the boundary within which congestion charges will apply, and that this will adversely affect the local environment, its amenities and property values, breaching their human rights.

Westminster’s legal team is asking the court to overrule the mayor’s decision to approve the scheme without an environmental impact assessment, or a public inquiry.

Mr Justice Scott Baker ordered yesterday that their application for judicial review should be heard together with the five-day Westminster case, which is due to start on July 15.

* Ken Livingstone has declared that he will stand again for Mayor of London whether or not he is readmitted to the Labour Party. Mr Livingstone was banned from the party for five years when he fought as an independent in 2000.

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