| Topic: | Congestion charge/crime | |
| Posted by: | Thomas Barry | |
| Date/Time: | 04/02/12 11:28:00 |
| "I don't agree the congestion charge is a good thing" Well it just is, I'm afraid. Reducing motor traffic in central London and directing the proceeds into buses has a positive economic benefit of decoupling London's economic growth from increasing congestion and also means that people moving to London now are less likely to start driving in the first place. This possibly explains why the population (and, I think, employment) is increasing while car traffic is still falling. "What evidence is there that he was responsible for reducing crime?" What evidence is there that the congestion charge isn't a good thing? On crime, well, if you accept that employing more policemen reduces crime, and accept that crime reduced during the period 2000-2008*, and note that there was a deliberate policy of increasing the council tax precept to pay for more policemen, I'd say Ken's on fairly good ground there. Boris's much trumpeted freeze in the precept (which is actually a substantial cut due to inflation) has led to a fall in officer numbers and George Osborne having to bung him £90m this week to fill the resultant hole in the Met's finances, but no one's explaining what's supposed to happen next year after re-election is in the bag and Boris puts in place his awfully generous £3.10 a year precept cut. Smells suspiciously like a pre-election bail-out. Other things attributable directly to 2000-2008 Mayoral decisions: London Overground, the East London Line extension, Crossrail, a couple of major DLR extensions (Woolwich and Stratford), huge increase in cycling in London, 40-50% fall in road deaths. Mostly transport, but the mayoralty is mostly transport, budget wise, so that's where to look. Boris's transport efforts have, in comparison, been almost entirely unnoticeable by the general public; even his hire bikes are used by a tiny minority of Londoners, mostly 35-54 year old men on higher than average incomes. * One example: the murder rate increased until 2003-4, when the increased police numbers kicked in, and has *halved* since to levels not seen since pre-Thatcher times. Crime's been falling for years in advanced democracies, but even so that's a remarkable turnaround. |