CONGESTION CHARGES

Congestion charges, designed to reduce traffic in city centres, have been introduced in London, Oslo and Stockholm. Quantifying their effects is controversial, but it seems that they are an idea that will stay. Indeed, the then left-of-centre Opposition in Denmark made the introduction of such a system in Copenhagen one of the planks of their election campaign last autumn. Now in Government, they have the task of making it happen.

Which is when the difficulties start. Because congestion charges are one of those things, like airport expansions and new high-speed rail links, that everyone can sign up to, providing they don't affect them directly. The list of people who now want to scrap Copenhagen's proposed "payment ring" include the Opposition, commuters, businesses within the ring, and people living just outside the ring (worried about parking). With some of those, the Government can take the view "well they would say that, wouldn't they?". But the most worrying anti's are surely the group of mayors in the local authorities of the western and southwestern suburbs, who are almost all Social Democrats like the Prime Minister. Mayors have real clout in Denmark's decentralised local government system, and they fear a voter backlash at the next communal elections, if this project goes ahead.

The Government is maintaining its line that the ring is needed in order to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, and to provide extra resources that can be ploughed back into improving public transport. They also say that once the system in place, people will naturally come to accept it. Coming from the U.K., I have never thought Copenhagen a particularly crowded or dirty place, and I am naturally suspicious of any Government that says it needs to take money from one group of citizens in order to improve the lot of another. At the moment, it seems that a lot of residents in the Greater Copenhagen area think the same.

Having invested so much political capital in this project, the Government will be loth to drop it, for fear of looking weak. But going against the wishes of your natural supporters is always difficult. The chances of the payment ring's happening are evenly balanced.   

Walter Blotscher