Protesters raise cash for legal challenge against controversial Cambridge congestion charge

Thousands of people have turned out to protest against plans to introduce a congestion charge in their city.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership wants to charge £5 to drive into and around the city to subsidise more bus routes.

But protesters in Cambridge are so angry they are now raising money to launch a legal challenge against the move.

Thousands gathered on Sunday for a second time to rally against the proposal.

Neil Mcarthur, from the Cambridgeshire Residents Group, said: "I'm a city resident, and I need to pay £5 a day every time I move my car and I have to go to Huntingdon every day, so I'm going out of the city, I'm not congestion, I'm not contributing to pollution, and a lot of people are like that.

"Likewise people are being forced out of the city because of the cost of the housing, and they come into work they commute into work and they have to pay to get in.

"If you're a trader your paying £10 a day for a van, and worst of all for the delivery lorries it's £50 a day and £50 for coaches. So it's just going to kill Cambridge, we don't want it, we don't need it,  it's unnecessary, it's uneconomic and it's just very, very unpopular."

The fee, known as the Sustainable Travel Zone road user charge, is proposed for private vehicles between 7am and 7pm on weekdays.

If it goes ahead, it will cover from the A14 in the north down to and including Trumpington and Addenbrooke's Hospital and extend from Cambridge Airport to the east to the M11 in the west.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership says the money will be used to subsidise more bus routes.

Cllr Elisa Meschini, Chair of Greater Cambridge Partnership, said: "The current dependence on the private car which is necessary because there's no decent public transport is creating a lot of congestion and gridlock at some of the key transport places in the county and this is going to make a lot of places really difficult to reach."

Protesters believe the congestion charge will hit shopping in the city hard.

Neil Mackay runs a hardware store in Cambridge and is worried he will lose customers.

Mr Mackay said: "A tradesman coming to our shop to get materials they've got a choice of a number of suppliers, I'm inside the zone, they're going to pay £10 for a van, another supplier potentially outside the zone, they're going to go there.

"They're going to go there instead of us, it's going to make us far less competitive and far less successful."

But the Greater Cambridge Partnership said it did not believe the charge would put people off coming to the city.

Cllr Meschini said: "We have heard that concern, I personally believe actually people are put off coming to Cambridge now because it's so unnavigable. I think we are learning from experience in other places, there are schemes like this all over Europe and they have overall been quite successful."

Councillors are keen to reassure residents that nothing has yet been set in stone.

The results of a public consultation into the proposals will be discussed at a joint assembly meeting at the end of May.

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