London’s far-left Mayor Sadiq Khan is investing up to £150 million in Great Reset-style technology, which reportedly could be used to charge drivers in the city per mile they travel.
According to a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests from The Telegraph broadsheet, Transport for London (TfL) — at the direction of Mayor Khan — established a scheme to develop a “more sophisticated… new core technology platform for road-user charging”.
The scheme, dubbed “Project Detroit” in an apparent nod to the American automobile hub city hollowed out by decades of leftist governance and mismanagement, currently has 157 staff, some of whom are earning upwards of £100,000 per year. The paper reports that £21 million in taxpayer money has already been spent with the total cost slated to rise to “between £130 million to £150 million”.
Amid a tough re-election bid and steep public opposition to move to expand the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) which imposes a green tax on motorists driving in all of London, Mayor Khan has recently claimed that he does not have plans to impose a pay-per-mile scheme.
However, according to the FoI for Project Detroit, TfL stated that the scheme could be expanded to encompass all levies on driving under one umbrella and could include a tax on distances driven.
“The Detroit platform has the capability to be extended and we will be looking to build the system flexibly so that other forms of charging based on distance, vehicle type, etc could be catered for if a decision was made in future to do so,” the TfL stated.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s anti-car ULEZ tax scheme is part of a wider “war on individual liberty”, warned @LozzaFox https://t.co/WKFr5oxDcY
— Kurt Zindulka (@KurtZindulka) July 18, 2023
The revelations have drawn criticism from opposition Conservative members of the London Assembly, with Peter Fortune, who represents Bexley and Bromley, saying:
“Sadiq Khan can deny it all he wants but it’s pretty clear he plans to introduce pay-per-mile road-user charges for every motorist if he wins a third term.”
“He has a history of saying one thing and doing the opposite. Remember he told us he wouldn’t expand ULEZ, then did precisely that,” Fortune continued, adding: “Sadiq Khan relies on road-user charges to plug the black hole in TfL finances. Motorists will pay TfL £1 billion in ULEZ and other road-user charges this year.”
The Conservative assembly member said that because the number of vehicles subject to ULEZ payments will likely decline over time, the London government will need to find other sources of income for TfL.
“He has confirmed TfL is developing new technology to integrate ULEZ, congestion and other charges into a single payment. Charging motorists for each mile they drive won’t be difficult once this technology is in place,” he said.
The alleged plan to impose a pay-per-mile scheme would likely face pushback from the public, as has been seen with the expansion of the ULEZ tax, which has seen vigilantes dubbed the ‘Blade Runners’ destroying or damaging hundreds of the licence plate-reading spy cameras used to enforce the green tax on vehicles. The civil disobedience has forced the mayor’s office to deploy surveillance vans to roam the streets to track vehicles entering the taxed areas.
Former Tory Leader Backs Public Destroying Sadiq Khan’s Climate Spy Cameras https://t.co/mr1Ek5yD2P
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 31, 2023
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