CONGESTION charges now appear very unlikely for the next four years in York after the council's Labour leader said: "It's certainly not on Labour's agenda for running the city."

Many cities across the UK have been adopting financial penalties to restrict the use of private cars, in a bid to cut carbon emissions, pollution and congestion, but such schemes have met with fierce opposition from some residents in cities such as Cambridge and Oxford.

City of York Council's transport executive member Andy D'Agorne suggested yesterday that some form of congestion charge should be introduced in York to help cut car use and tackle the climate emergency, as he outlined his Green Party's stance at the May council elections.

However, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives both said last week they opposed congestion charging, and now Cllr Claire Douglas, Labour group and main opposition leader, has indicated her party does not want to introduce it either.

She told The Press that Labour had been calling on the council's LibDem/Green Party coalition administration to produce an integrated transport plan for the city, suburbs, and surrounding villages for the past four years but claimed there had instead been a 'confusing mish mash of transport interventions and ad hoc suggestions, such as congestion charging, with no overall aim or strategy.'

She said: "York needs an integrated plan for how people move around and get into and out of the city. Without one, the city will fail in its goals to tackle congestion, reduce carbon emissions, and air pollution, and improve walking, cycling and public transport provision and usage levels. 

"We need a plan with ambitious measurable outcomes that strive to achieve our challenging transport and environment targets and makes moving around our city efficient and affordable. Only York Labour appears to have the drive and determination to produce and enact such a plan."

She said this was difficult to achieve, so Labour been engaging with residents, businesses, bus companies, taxi firms, freight carriers and other stakeholders, and had studied transport schemes - some that had worked and some that hadn’t - in similar local authorities in the UK and across Europe to see what lessons could be learnt. 

"If on May 4, residents lend their votes to York Labour, we will continue this work in administration and produce an evidence-based integrated local transport plan by April 2024," she said. 

"As the plan will be developed with residents, businesses, and stakeholder groups, it remains to be seen what that plan will entail, but congestion charging is certainly not on Labour’s agenda for running the city."

She said that what was on Labour's agenda was the reversal of the council's controversial ban on Blue Badge holders from city centre footstreets, which has generated huge opposition from disability activists.

She claimed that instead of removing non-essential journeys from the city centre, the ban removed essential journeys for Blue Badge holders.