Porsche is moving ahead with the next stage of its legal challenge against the increased cost of the London congestion charge, seeking a judicial review against Ken Livingstone’s proposal to increase the charge to £25-a-day for vehicles in the highest CO2 emissions band.The increased charge will effect almost all of Porsche’s current range, only the basic 2.7-litre Boxster and Cayman slip under the 225g/km upper threshold for the £8-a-day charge. After previous legal wrangling, including Porsche’s demand that Livingstone release the results of a poll he had carried out on Londoners’ opinions of the increase, the challenge is now going to court.Speaking on Porsche’s decision to officially challenge Livingstone, Andy Goss, Managing Director of Porsche Cars GB, said: “We are formally applying for judicial review to challenge the Mayor’s proposals and we are confident we have a strong case.”The Mayors office will now have 21 days to acknowledge the claim, details of which can be found on Porsche’s own dedicated judicial review site www.porschejudicialreview.co.uk.
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Re: Porsche turns up the heat on Ken
JJ, Ken's motives may be quesionble - but he is not a stupid guy. Look back to how all this stared:
1. Reducing Congeston in Central London - great vote winner with people in Central London - especially if you give them reduced fees and use the 'i will invest in public transport' carrot - and what does Ken care about those outside his catchment area?
2. Don't tell me that the army of accountants have not already figured out that they will loose money at the beginning, but get the system in place - then 'play' with the charges
3. Use the salami tactic - raise the prices bit by bit and play with the goal posts. It's a bit like the old story of the frog - put him in boiling water, and he will jump out. Put him in cool water and gently raise the temperature and you will cook him to death
4. Have you had a look at the London Tansport web sites resently - try and figure out where you can park and catch a tube into London - it's ambiguos, and you have no idea where the car park is nor how much it will cost. Perfect - as Ken does not really want you to use Public Transport anyay.
I would not be surprised that when he leaves office, he is offered a very nice consultancy job with a company 'related' to the CC system.
Porshe's efforts are commendable - and their arguments are water tight - but somehow I'm not sure the wheels of justice will run true.
The only way to beat this - is to play Ken at his own game. Boycot the roads, over burden the 'wonderful' public transort systems, companies in London will be screaming, and his wonderful system will get so far into debt so quickly that he will have to backtrack. And when he finally leaves office - he may just get a job as a bus driver - nice lesson to future Ken's.
Re: Porsche turns up the heat on Ken
You can't blame Ken for all this - it is our own fault for putting up with it.
So a car emiting 226g/km is paying to drive 4,582 miles per day.......in London!
So why don't we just do what Ken askes - we all stop driving into Central London, and put up with the Public Transport. It won't be long before he starts making claims of success, and start lowering the charges to a fair level....
Re: Porsche turns up the heat on Ken
Lets not kidd ourselves. Porsche is doing this to save their sales and no other reason. I should imagine that most of their UK sales are in London and this could harm them.
I advise anyone to look on following site:
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/search/search.asp
You will see why Porsche is worried and why a company like BMW may be laughing all the way to the bank!