Porsche sulks over London congestion charge, starts a petition

Posted by jamie — 22 February 2008 at 5:11pm - Comments

Porsche logoLondon mayor Ken Livingstone was never going to get an easy ride over his planned changes to the congestion charge, and Porsche's threat of a legal challenge is perhaps no big surprise. Famed for its fast, sleek, inefficient cars, it claims the new £25-a-day charge on gas guzzlers is "unfair and disproportionate".

As well as the promised judicial review, the company has started a petition for the Jeremy Clarksons of this world to voice their opposition to Ken's plan. "We know that huge numbers of people in London and across the rest of the country support our case," they claim. "They agree with us that it would be bad for London - that it is unfair and sends the wrong message about what sort of a city London is whilst having no meaningful benefit on the environment."

Though we capital dwellers can often be a tad London-centric, it's hard to see why the rest of the country should have a say on policy decisions that won't, in the main, affect them. More than that, why should a private company be trying to dictate to a democratically elected official? As Ken has noted, there's an election coming up in May - we'll find out how popular the new charges are then.

Update: The Alliance Against Urban 4x4s have launched an online petition asking Porsche to stop being so silly - you can sign up on their website.

About Jamie

I'm a forests campaigner working mainly on Indonesia. My personal mumblings can be found @shrinkydinky.

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