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Legal action could be taken against London mayor Sadiq Khan after a lawyer issued a pre-action protocol letter on him following the increase of the congestion charge.

The letter from Black Antelope law director Shaheen Mamun said the mayor had not engaged in a formal consultation that is adequate and fair as established in case law.

It added that the timescale from announcing the proposals to the 22 June implementation date was woefully inadequate and that “it would be difficult to see how members of the public could express an intelligent view on the proposed scheme, so as to participate in a meaningful way in the decision-making process”.

Last month, the mayor announced that all road charging schemes were to be reintroduced and that the congestion charge would be “temporarily” increased to £15.

The FTA criticised the move and said it jeopardised many logistics firms’ chances of recovery as they emerged from the Covid-19 crisis.

Mamun’s letter added: “Alternative suggestions or ideas have not been clearly explored by the respondent nor have the terms of the referred government’s ‘funding deal’ been disclosed in full... and the respondent has clearly acted in a manner to go beyond what is expected from a public body or within their scope of powers before exercising their powers by using the government’s funding deal and the Covid-19 pandemic as a means to bypass any consultation period and to immediately bring forward changes to the congestion charge scheme without due consideration.”

TfL had not responded as we went to press.

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