• YOU can imagine my horror and disgust at the weekend when I had to renew my controlled parking zone permit and found the cost had rocketed from £171 to £292.

Using Camden’s own figures, they have raised over £600million between the introduction of CPZ charges in 2002 and 2018. So they clearly see it as an easy way to get money.

Now, with no prior warning or consultation, they have raised the charge by 70 per cent. How are they allowed to do this? Why are such increases not regulated, as is the case for council tax?

I have an MOT which shows the emissions from my car are less than 10 per cent of the allowable limit. Further, when I enter the number plate in the Transport for London database, it passes the allowable limit for the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

So I do not drive a polluting car and it is ridiculous that Camden can arbitrarily pick an age and then decide that anything older than that is automatically bad.

Surely the annual mileage is more relevant? How does a parked car pollute more than one that spends its time idling in traffic in Camden?

The study Effects of the London Congestion Charge on air quality carried out by the department of policy analysis and public management in Milan concluded: “Our results suggest that the congestion charge has had a limited or even adverse impact”.

So immediately there is evidence that increasing charges for private car ownership does not improve air quality.

There is absolutely no justification for this disgraceful cash-grab. It’s just another example of Camden Council syphoning cash from a section of its population because it can.

ANDREW WINTON,
NW6