Trade angry at plans to extend congestion zone: Dealers argue it will hit business despite what the authorities say

The Forum of Private Business (FPB), a lobby group for small and medium-sized businesses, conducted the survey, and they say 426 of the 500 small London businesses that took part were against extending the zone.

The art and antiques shops that fall within the proposed West London extension include over 60 in Pimlico Road, as well as dealers in Kensington Church Street, Portobello Road and the Kings Road, which is home to Chelsea antiques market and the Chelsea Antiques Fair.

Olympia would fall just outside the proposed zone.

Some 408 of those surveyed were also against Mayor Ken Livingstone’s plans to increase the congestion charge from £5 to £6. Fifty-eight per cent said they had seen their profits drop since congestion charging began in February 2003, while 67 per cent of shops reported a drop in the footfall of customers since the scheme was introduced.

The FPB’s chief executive, Nick Goulding, said he had written to Mr Livingstone about the effects of congestion charging on small businesses.

“Our members are telling us loud and clear that congestion charging is having a devastating effect on trade,” he said. “Any increase in the charge or extension to the zone will only increase that pain. Business owners fundamentally resent the fact that their hard work, for many of them a lifetime’s work, is being fatally undermined by an unwanted and unnecessary stealth tax.”

He added that while large companies can absorb the costs incurred by the congestion charge, small firms operating tight profit margins could not.

In response, Transport for London (TfL) pointed to their January 2005 monitoring update of the effect of congestion charging which denotes that the overall impact of congestion charging on business has been neutral.

The summary of the report states: “The evidence so far suggests that for the vast majority of businesses and sectors, the impact of the scheme has been marginal.”

This is of little comfort to the antique dealers.

English furniture dealer Eddy Bardawil of Kensington Church Street told ATG: “There is no doubt that it will increase our costs. It will certainly affect clients and dealers travelling into London and therefore won’t help the trade.”

Dealer in children’s antiques Sarah Standing, whose shop Semmalina is part of the Pimlico Road Association, called the proposals “dire” and a “special tax on Londoners”.

Julia Boston, of Julia Boston Antiques on Kings Road, said: “The congestion charge has had an appalling effect on businesses already. Increasing it and extending it can only make a bad situation worse.”

Whatever the impact on business, TfL are concentrating on the benefits to the traveller, saying the charge has greatly benefited Londoners, and pointing to the 30 per cent reduction in congestion inside the charging zone. Half of the respondents to TfL’s own surveys feel that travelling within the zone is now easier, and only one in 20 now say it is more difficult.