Alistair Darling, transport secretary, is to publish a consultation documents examining road charging in cities and on motorways, according to today’s edition of The Economist.
The Department for Transport said it was “far too soon” to make a meaningful assessment of the central London scheme.
Capita, which runs the central London scheme, said 53,000 people had paid to use the zone by 10am yesterday, a figures had had been reached on Monday and Tuesday only by the middle of the afternoon. It admitted there had been glitches with the system to pay the £5 toll but concluded “just about everything” had gone right so far. It said the market to run schemes across the UK could be worth up to £1bn within a couple of years. Errors at call centres have meant some people who have paid the charge by telephone received fines in yesterday’s post. London mayor Ken Livingstone, has reported the Evening Standard to the press complaints commission over several attacks on the scheme.
References: Financial Times 21/02/03 page 2, page 18 (Lex), page 21, page 42 (Markets – London), The Guardian 21/02/03 page 8, page 23, The Times 21/02/03 page 9, page 28 (Need to know), page 29, page 30 (Tempus)
