C-Charge Poll Results Under Scrutiny

Polls by Ipsos-MORI and ICM are this week at the centre of a row surrounding London's driving toll, the Congestion Charge. Mayor Ken Livingstone says his survey shows support for a new £25 charge on high fuel consumption vehicles, but Porsche Cars GB says its own survey says the opposite, and claims it's being more open with its findings.

Livingstone claimed his own survey, conducted by Ipsos-MORI in December, showed strong support for the plan. Porsche says that over the last two months, Ipsos-MORI has repeatedly refused to release the full results of this poll, and that regulatory body the British Polling Council - of which both Ipsos-ORI and ICM are members - has taken the rare step of investigating the matter. Andy Goss, MD of Porsche Cars GB, has written to Livingstone asking him to release the full tables.

Transport for London (TfL) has provided what Porsche calls 'summary tables' and made claims about the views of women and of the drivers of certain types of cars about the congestion charge, but has not, the car giant says, provided the breakdown of results to back up the latter, leaving it unable to analyse them. In its rules (www.britishpollingcouncil.org/objects.html - paragraphs 2.2 to 2.6) the BPC states that 'Public opinion polling organisations reporting results... will make a report containing ... full computer tables of the results available on their web site within 2 working days of the original release'. Tables should show 'the exact questions asked in the order they were asked'.

Porsche, which has also mounted a legal challenge to the proposed 'disproportionate' charge itself, says it has released full results from its own survey, conducted by ICM. This survey suggests that 74% of Londoners think the £25 daily charge, due to begin in October this year, is unfair; and that a majority (62%) agree the charge's introduction may have more to do with securing extra revenue for the Mayor than with helping the environment.

Web sites: www.tfl.gov.uk , www.britishpollingcouncil.org and www.porsche.com/uk.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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