Boris to announce today. Bye bye public transport improvements, hello
happy petrolheads.

Tom

"Tom Barry" wrote ...
Boris to announce today. Bye bye public transport improvements,
hello happy petrolheads.

Happy for a week or two. Then the penny will drop.
Back to all day queues at Kensington Church Street.
Hoist With Their Own Petar.

Plus more income (and less congestion) in the original zone.

Lager and crisps all round!
--

Andrew

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Andrew Heenan wrote:
"Tom Barry" wrote ...
Boris to announce today. Bye bye public transport improvements,
hello happy petrolheads.

Happy for a week or two. Then the penny will drop.
Back to all day queues at Kensington Church Street.
Hoist With Their Own Petar.

Plus more income (and less congestion) in the original zone.


I'll make a point of not going to Kensington for my shopping, anyway.

The current scheme stays until 2010, for legal reasons, by the way.

Tom

"Tom Barry" wrote ...
I'll make a point of not going to Kensington for my shopping, anyway.
The current scheme stays until 2010, for legal reasons, by the way.

Could be a fun couple of years; I know several 'western extension' people
who loathed the congestion charge, hated Ken, and vowed to go to prison
rather than pay, etc., etc.,

But once it happened, and they realised they got a reduction, free access to
the old zone, etc., they learned to love it. Really love it.

Even Boris' BlunderBuses won't deliver the goods now - they'll really need
that open rear platform, as they'll never reach the bus stops!
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"Tom Barry" wrote ...
I'll make a point of not going to Kensington for my shopping, anyway.
The current scheme stays until 2010, for legal reasons, by the way.


Even Boris' BlunderBuses won't deliver the goods now - they'll really need
that open rear platform, as they'll never reach the bus stops!

I'm pretty sure the consultation was flawed, too, since there were two
sets of results announced achieved by two different methods and they're
not even close to each other on the same question (slight majority
against abolition on the second one, overwhelming support on the first one).

Boris preferred the results of the larger survey size, which I gather
was achieved by people being sufficiently concerned to write in. I've
no idea whether any consideration was made to weighting this statistically.

Actually, one council, Hammersmith and Fulham, did urge its residents to
write in and support abolition, which in itself rather biases it - I'm
not sure if the retention camp could call upon similar public resources.

I'd also be interested in whether that's considered to be an acceptable
method of consultation for the statutory hoops that now have to be gone
through.

Oh, and finally, there was a strong majority at consultation in favour
of the Cross River Tram, and look where that went, and there's no
consultation on bendy buses at all.

Tom

"Tom Barry" wrote ...
I'd also be interested in whether that's considered to be an acceptable
method of consultation for the statutory hoops that now have to be gone
through.

I don't think there's any rules; he said he'd consult - indeed, was careful
to avoid any commitment to democratic consultation (eg local referendum).
He's consulted the Evening Standard and Andrew Gilligan - what else matters?

Oh, and finally, there was a strong majority at consultation in favour of
the Cross River Tram, and look where that went, and there's no
consultation on bendy buses at all.

Perzakkerly!
Mind you, the bendy bus ban was a manifesto commitment, so for good or ill,
no consulation was ever even considered (except Evening Standard and Andrew
Gilligan, of course!).

We (not me personally) voted for Boris; and that's exactly what we've got.
I'll take the good with the bad. Trouble is, he hasn't come up with the
good, yet.
--
Andrew
seo2seo.com
sick-site-syndrome.com

"When 'Do no Evil' has been understood, then learn the harder, braver rule,
Do Good." ~ Arthur Guiterman

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008, Andrew Heenan wrote:

"Tom Barry" wrote ...

Boris to announce today. Bye bye public transport improvements, hello
happy petrolheads.

Happy for a week or two. Then the penny will drop. Back to all day
queues at Kensington Church Street. Hoist With Their Own Petar.

Plus more income (and less congestion) in the original zone.

Lager and crisps all round!

Quite. As a resident of northeast London who works in central London, i'm
happy that inner-west Londoners will be discouraged from driving into my
bit of the city, and quite content to watch them stew in their own juice
in theirs.

There is talk of a loss of 70 million in charge revenue, though. I'd like
to see this made up by increasing the central charge, but there's no
prospect of that happening, so i suppose it'll have to come out of the
budgets for public transport, cycling, and black lesbian mime groups or
whoever it is that Boris hates this week.

tom

--
I now have a problem with tomorrow. -- Graham

"Tom Anderson" wrote ...
There is talk of a loss of 70 million in charge revenue, though. I'd like
to see this made up by increasing the central charge, but there's no
prospect of that happening, so i suppose it'll have to come out of the
budgets for public transport, cycling, and black lesbian mime groups or
whoever it is that Boris hates this week.

Black lesbian mime is *ok* this week; perhaps TfL could simply axe the buses
they added for the western expansion (they won't be able to move, anyway!).
That would be much of it.

But I wouldn't count on Boris not raising the CC charge; 2010 is a long time
after his election, after all.
--

Andrew

"She plays the tuba.
It is the only instrument capable
of imitating a distress call."

On Nov 27, 2:34*pm, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Thu, 27 Nov 2008, Andrew Heenan wrote:
"Tom Barry" wrote ...

Boris to announce today. Bye bye public transport improvements, hello
happy petrolheads.

Happy for a week or two. Then the penny will drop. Back to all day
queues at Kensington Church Street. Hoist With Their Own Petar.

Plus more income (and less congestion) in the original zone.

Lager and crisps all round!

Quite. As a resident of northeast London who works in central London, i'm
happy that inner-west Londoners will be discouraged from driving into my
bit of the city, and quite content to watch them stew in their own juice
in theirs.

There is talk of a loss of 70 million in charge revenue, though. I'd like
to see this made up by increasing the central charge, but there's no
prospect of that happening, so i suppose it'll have to come out of the
budgets for public transport, cycling, and black lesbian mime groups or
whoever it is that Boris hates this week.

I was never really in favour of the congestion charge, although I was
in favour of what it was trying to achieve, ie stop selfish people in
cars from clogging the streets. Trouble was that it was a bit
indiscriminate in who it affected.

But I saw a news item with totally spurious complaints from
campaigners against the charge.

Like one owner of a takeaway saying that people didn't drive there
because of the charge, but what time of day do people drive to
takeways?

And even sillier, people claiming that it was stopping people going to
Portobello Road market. Were they seriously claiming that everyone
should drive there and park in the area (or ever did)?

Interesting thought that people who had paid that charge would then
continue to central London. I hadn't thought of that, but it might
improve things if it wasn't for all the roadworks that are making bus
travel impossible at the moment.

In article
, MIG
writes

And even sillier, people claiming that it was stopping people going to
Portobello Road market. Were they seriously claiming that everyone
should drive there and park in the area (or ever did)?

I did, when I lived in, er, Marylebone.

In any case, the market's main day is Saturday when no charge applies.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com