Confusion over plans for a congestion charge in Cambridge has brought councillors, businessmen and operators together to air their views. Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) is bidding for £500m of government funding to help ease congestion in the city - its plans could include a Monday-Friday congestion charge of £3-5.
CCC leader Shona Johnstone has previously said a congestion charge would be effective in tackling congestion but she insists a decision has not yet been made. Increasing concern among local businessmen and operators over the effects of a congestion charge on the local economy prompted the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses to organise the debate.
Chamber chairman Professor Walter Herriot says: "There's confusion about what's being proposed - or not being proposed - and what stage we are actually at, and indeed why it would work and why it's important to bring it in." Johnstone says: "We are going to submit a business case to government, but it does not commit us to introducing a congestion charge."
Asked if LGV operators would be forced to pay, Johnstone says: "We are being lobbied left, right and centre from people who think they should qualify for a discount, Clearly we will look at all of those groups. If you don't have a charge some of those delivery drivers and vehicles would be stuck in congestion and could spend £5 just getting through the congestion."
But she admits congestion in the City is "not of [hauliers'] own making. It's planning proposals in the '60s, '70s, and '80s that's landed them in this problem."
