Lib Dems against City congestion charge

3.26.43pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 25th Apr 2007

In a letter to the Evening News, Norwich City Cllr Judith Lubbock, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for transport, calls for public transport improvements and longer opening of Park and Ride facilities to reduce existing congestion.

"Angela Moss (EN 21/4) questions what will it cost those who live inside the city boundary if the Conservative County Council's congestion charge study becomes a reality?" she writes. "She rightly says that this County Council investigation is driven by £250,000 from the Government's Traffic Innovation Fund matched by money from the County's own budget. £500,000 could perhaps have been spent on sustainable transport measures?

This is a very serious issue for a city which has encouraged and is still encouraging with more planning permissions in the pipeline, residents to live in the heart of it, making it both sustainable and safe as a city can be. There would, I believe, need to be an exemption for residents, and the bureaucracy involved in that exemption would be extensive and possibly expensive.

The Liberal Democrats on the City Council believe a congestion charge is quite unnecessary.

Norwich is a compact city with reasonable public transport and excellent Park & Ride facilities. Further improvements to public transport and longer opening of the Park & Ride facilities could further decongest the city. However I feel that apart from peak times traffic flow is quite good and we rarely see traffic at gridlock. Changing peoples' habits does take a long time, but I believe here in Norwich it is happening. With more imaginative ways of getting the message across that you should consider alternatives to the car each time you make a journey, congestion charging and its bias towards the well off can be avoided," Cllr Lubbock concluded.