Mayor scraps gas guzzler tax plan

By Stephen Addison in London MAYOR Boris Johnson has scrapped plans to increase the central London congestion charge to £25 ($51) a day for owners of gas-guzzling cars. The CO2 charge, brainchild of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, was due to have come into effect in October. As well as penalising bigger and faster cars, it would have scrapped the normal £8 ($16.50) charge for small, fuel-efficient vehicles. Critics of the plan had claimed it would have been expensive to implement and might even have increased pollution by allowing thousands of small cars into central London free of charge. The Conservatives had pledged to scrap the CO2 charge in Johnson's election manifesto. He was elected in May. Sports car maker Porsche had been challenging Livingstone in the courts and the scrapping of the CO2 charge means its costs... [read full story]                    

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