Thatcherite Environmentalism Anybody?

It is now 30 years since the rise of Margaret Thatcher, and the introduction of her policies that celebrated and accelerated conspicuous consumption and the wasteful energy use that came with it. Surprisingly however, it was also Thatcher who was amongst the first major politicians to recognise that Climate Change was a matter to be treated seriously.

Thatcher as eco-warrior might be stretching credibility too far – but, perhaps we can recycle some of her policies to reduce environmental damage –in particular, the effects of private car use in Bristol.

Thatcher’s success came because she redrew the political landscape in the UK – she decimated the Labour vote by the simple expedient of giving their traditional supporters self-interest in an expanding economy. Once these nouveau capitalists had a stake in economic and financial growth they realised that it was Tory policies that would increase the value of their stake. Voting Tory became a guilty secret and self-interest won elections. Political analysts wondered if Labour would ever win another election – and, in truth, they never did.

What does this have to do with car use in Bristol? Well, perhaps it is time for Bristol City Council to appeal to the self-interest of the motoring majority. Nobody, including car drivers, is happy with the level of traffic congestion in Bristol. The core problem, recognised by everybody, is the sheer number of cars travelling into the city centre during the rush hour, and the equally obvious solution is to introduce congestion charging to reduce the number of cars coming into the city centre. But, for congestion charging to be introduced it requires car drivers to vote for something that will require them to either change their preferred mode of travel or to pay for something that they currently get for nothing. Not a vote winning combination.

What car drivers want is congestion reduction that will cost them nothing and have no impact upon their own ability to drive to work whilst removing other car drivers, thus freeing up road space for them. In effect, they want something for nothing.

The city centre day time workforce consists of approximately 105,000 workers. This includes roughly 60,000 who travel to work by car, large enough to block any introduction of congestion charging…..unless they are given a Thatcher-like self-interest in congestion charging, convincing them to vote in favour of it not against. The only way to do that is by giving enough of them exactly what they want – something for nothing.

Of the 60,000 odd workers who travel to work in the city centre by car between 25% and 30% live outside the Bristol City Unitary Authority boundary. My proposal is simple; all car drivers who pay Bristol City Council Tax are exempt from congestion charging and the price of the congestion charge is set at a level that will discourage at least half of the car drivers from outside the city from paying it.

For example, if we assume that a congestion charge of £10 per day would discourage 50% of drivers from outside the city, than this would reduce overall car traffic travelling into the city centre by between 12-15% whilst providing £18-£23 million pound per year in congestion charging revenue - providing a considerable investment fund for public transport improvements that will encourage more car usage reductions inside the city. If a £15 per day charge discouraged 70% of drivers that would result in a 17-21% drop in car usage whilst still recovering £17-£20 million in revenues.

Maybe it is time for a bit of self-interest – this time used for the greater interest of all of us living in the City of Bristol.