BRITAIN: London's Mayor, Mr Ken Livingstone, has warned that a "bloody" Monday awaits Londoners as his controversial £5 sterling congestion charge comes into effect this morning.
Speaking on the eve of the introduction of the largest congestion charging scheme of its kind, Mr Livingstone also admitted that "a very bad two or three days" would follow as people discovered how the system works. However, he confidently predicted that the scheme - which many British cites and towns seem likely to copy - would pass its biggest single test and win public tolerance.
Confusion on the roads and a worse-than-usual crush on Tubes and trains is expected as up to 30,000 drivers leave their cars at home and seek an alternative way into central London, the area initially covered by the charge.
Mr Livingstone admitted that, if the technology behind the scheme failed, he would scrap it. And he apologised yesterday for an administrative error which led to 45 motorists being sent £120 fixed penalty notices before the charge had even begun. "I plead guilty to that. It was a complete mistake. Someone pressed the wrong button on the computer and the forms went out," he told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme. But hundreds of surveillance cameras will be pushing those buttons from today in a scheme Mr Livingstone hopes will raise £130 million to help improve London's public transport system in its first two years.
Drivers travelling into central London during Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. will have to pay the £5 charge. People can travel into the congestion zone and then pay at any of the 300 PayPoint-equipped shops, petrol stations and car-parks or alternatively via www.cclondon.com.
From 10 p.m. to midnight the charge rises to £10 and if unpaid after midnight people will have to pay an £80 fine. That £80 penalty is reduced if paid within 14 days but increases to £120 after 28 days. Vehicles with three or more outstanding and unchallenged penalty charges may be clamped or towed away.
Drivers parking their cars legally inside the zone before 7 a.m. do not have to pay the charge provided they do not move the vehicle until after 6.30pm. Anyone caught on camera moving their car inside the zone during the operative hours has to pay that day's charge. Transport for London claims its cameras will be able to read obscured number plates and drivers will also face £1,000 fines for deliberately obstructing their number.
An extra 11,000 spaces on buses have been created to help motorists making the switch.
Conservative mayoral candidate Mr Steven Norris told GMTV's Sunday programme: "The crazy thing about the scheme is that even if it works it doesn't work. It shifts a lot of traffic around but it doesn't actually reduce pollution, it doesn't reduce the number of vehicles significantly overall, and it does it at enormous cost to people who aren't necessarily wealthy simply because they run a car."