Rescue London seeks better congestion management for London, the abolishing of the congestion charge , better and cheaper public transport combined with more car friendly policies, and more and cheaper parking in and bordering London to allow the economy to flourish and the choice of good and services that London is famous for to grow.

We should much appreciate your visiting our website http://www.rescuelondon.org . to read of the problems facing motorists, businesses, commuters, tourists and the general public and the economies of our major cities, and indeed towns, caused by the transport policies of central and local government, the dearth of reasonably priced public transport, and lack of parking facilities, and high parking charges, and the anti-car stance, that combine to reduce consumer choice, push up taxes further, and generally make for an unnecessarily stressful negative environment

We feel that organisations such as yourselves, and the other motoring organizations and car manufacturers, and energy producers, and of course the media, could all make a huge impact and be major instigators of change to government direction, that will contribute greatly to the growth of the economy and the quality of life for all of us. In this way private and business- use motorists will use public transport and other alternatives increasingly, but still have the option of using their vehicles when the alternatives are not practical

This will help cities and towns to start to flourish again, and the benefit of the car providing competition to public transport will keep a lid on travel ticket prices.

The motor vehicles in Britain are already carrying a heavily skewed tax burden, and largely because they are an easy target for tax- raising. All of us should be encouraging the government to reassess where taxes should best be coming from, to help keep the economy growing. Some immediate targets spring to mind. The Uniform Business Rate should be abolished and the Tesco's of the world pay a level that is in closer proportion to that the small shops suffer as a percentage of their sales turnover or other measurements. There are other businesses and professions where the mega incomes do not contribute to the prosperity of the economy. Taxing the wealthy as an alternative doesn’t make economic sense, but some creative new legislation should allow taxing those who aren’t creating employment or other benefit on a different basis, or give tax breaks to those who do

The parking laws and levels of prices and lack of availability of parking are killing off local business in city centres and in adjacent high streets. It is organizations like yourselves who can contribute greatly as engineers of change

We in our small way are determined to increase awareness of the damage being done, and to increase public support

You all are in much more commanding positions to challenge the authorities and get your members and the media to support your campaigns for a better Britain

All of us are interested in lessening pollution and reducing road accidents, but these arguments are used too easily by the authorities as the reason for their totally unsuitable transport policies and tax regime. Also traffic light programming and road bumps and road narrowing all add to congestion and hit the economy directly; and with cameras and technology speeding can be dealt with much more effectively in many ways. We believe that there is much vital progress being made by the energy majors in lowering harmful emissions and alternative energy sources, which will have far more impact than the alternatives of anti-car stances and road-pricing us off the roads and killing off the inner cities and choice, and forcing consumers to out of town malls. It is time that the inner cities were put in a position to compete better with out of town shopping.

When Rescue London has wider awareness and support we intend to launch Rescue Britain to support and encourage the growth of local initiatives to encourage the authorities and politicians and the media to begin to live up to their responsibilities to the economy, and to stop this easy tax
gathering that kills off growth, and replace with whatever is needed to govern us economically and fairly.

Politicians and central and local government have grown complacent and over-confident in their ability to do things the way they want to without consideration of what the economy and the electorate need and ask for, and they head for the easy options.  Consultations are for the most part a
travesty.

September 2006.

Rescue London

info@rescuelondon.com

Tel /text/voice mail 07977001675 anytime

Box 138, No 2 Old Brompton Road

London SW7 3DQ