Porsche to take London Mayor to court over congestions charges
LUXURY car company Porsche is to carry out its threat to take London Mayor Ken Livingstone to court over the new 25 congestion charge in the capital for the most-polluting vehicles.
The German sports car manufacturer announced last month that it would submit an application for judicial review to the Royal Courts of Justice unless the Mayor reconsidered the policy.
But in a formal reply to Porsche today, Mr Livingstone and Transport for London (TfL) made it clear they would go ahead with the charge, saying it was legal and proportionate.
Porsche said it would therefore file a request for judicial review. Mr Livingstone will then have 21 days to acknowledge the Porsche claim.
Responding to the Mayor's decision, Andy Goss, managing director of Porsche Cars GB, said: "The new £25 charge will have no meaningful impact on congestion and TfLs own figures show the anticipated CO2 emissions savings in a year could be equivalent to less than four hours of emissions from Heathrow.
"All it will do is unfairly hit large numbers of drivers in London and undermine London's attractiveness as a place to do business. We are therefore formally applying for judicial review to challenge the Mayor's proposals and we are confident we have a strong case."
Earlier Mr Livingstone said: "Porsche have a clear vested interest in attempting to block this ground-breaking scheme, against the interests of Londoners as a whole.
"They should focus their attentions on cutting CO2 emissions from the cars they produce, rather than pursuing this pointless legal action, which we will vigorously contest.
"We have already seen several motor manufacturers rise to the challenge of cutting CO2 emissions from their cars and Porsche should join them."
Under the new congestion charge regime, due to come into force on October 27, owners of gas-guzzling vehicles will have to pay £25 to enter central London.
The vehicles affected are those that emit more than 225g of CO2 per kilometre and those registered before March 2001 with engines larger than 3,000cc.
Vehicles emitting less than 120g of CO2 per kilometre will be eligible for a 100 per cent discount on the congestion charge.
Of the cars currently being driven in London's congestion charging zone, 17 per cent would be liable for the 25 charge and just two per cent would receive the total discount.
2:14pm Tuesday 11th March 2008
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