Ambulance Response Times To Improve

12.00.00am GMT Wed 14th Aug 2002

Lynne Featherstone has writen to the Evening Standard responding to the claim that getting ambulances in and out of the congestion charging zone boundary was to cause problems.

Lynne's letter reads:

The Editor

Evening Standard

14 August 2002

Dear Editor

You report that ambulance chiefs claim that "getting ambulances in and out of the congestion charging zone boundary is going to be a major problem" (999 chiefs: Car charge may cost lives). They make it sound like getting through the Berlin Wall.

There will be no 'checkpoints' or physical barriers around the edge of the zone to slow traffic. Quite a lot of the camera work to check licence plates will be done by roving cameras well within the zone itself. Ambulance chief John Warwick was quoted as worrying about tailbacks on approaches to London Bridge - not on the edge of the zone at all. What was that about?

Our guess is that drivers in London will quickly get used to staying well away from the edge of the zone and avoid the perimeter roads like the plague. Tower Bridge has always been a worry: but even in heavy congestion drivers are brilliant at making way for ambulances. With 15 per cent less traffic in central London, ambulance response times ought to improve.

Yours sincerely

Lynne Featherstone

Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson

Greater London Assembly