Levy cars if public transport works, says Livingstone

FORMER MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone has said the €200 levy introduced in the Budget on car park spaces in urban areas was "like something I would do. But you must make sure you have good public transport".

He said "such is the catastrophe to come [with climate change] that we really have to do something about emissions, a third of which cars are responsible for".

He also felt that "in a small city like Dublin it should be possible to get around walking, cycling, busing". Mr Livingstone, who has never learned to drive, said it must be cheaper to get around cities through using cabs, public transport or walking.

"A car must be the third-highest expense after homes and kids," he speculated.

He was in Dublin to address the Dublin Chamber of Commerce annual dinner last night, which was attended by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Livingstone met Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

The Minister intends presenting a White Paper shortly on a directly elected Dublin mayor.

Dublin Chamber of Commerce has been seeking advice from Mr Livingstone about successful mayoral elections.

Mr Livingstone, the first directly elected London mayor, held office from 2000 until May of this year, when he was defeated by the Conservative Party's Boris Johnson.

He emphasised that a directly elected Mayor of Dublin "must have [independent] powers".

Mr Livingstone said that he had few independent powers when he was elected mayor of London. He persuaded the British government to allow him to raise independent funding, he said, by selling off bonds.

The bond issue secured £3 billion (€3.86 billion), he said.

Soon, Mr Livingstone said, he had an AA credit rating which allowed him to raise more money.

"A mayor must have powers to modernise the city.

"It's what business wants," he pointed out.

New York and Moscow, he added, had the most powerful city mayors.

Mr Livingstone said that in these cities, particularly in Moscow, all functions of state devolved on the mayor.

In Moscow "there has been a huge renewal programme, while the rest of Russia is a basket case", he said.

Mr Livingstone said that London's congestion charge had reduced city traffic to less than 75,000 cars a day.

Thanks to the congestion charge London still has no gridlock, the former London mayor said, even as the city begins a 30-year programme to restore all Victorian-era water mains.

It was too soon to say how Boris Johnson was doing, he continued.

"It takes two years to learn yourself into a job, as Obama will find out," he said.

Mr Livingstone said that British prime minister Gordon Brown "has secured his place in history, even if not re-elected" after the events of recent weeks.