Westminster Council lost it's appeal against the controversial plans. The council claimed congestion charges would push traffic out to the surrounding areas, increasing air pollution and breaching resident's human rights by adversely affecting the quality of city life.

Mayor Ken Livingstoke was accused by Westminster and two other councils of wrongly failing to carry out a full and efficient consultation. Councillor Kit Malthouse, deputy leader of Westminster Council, said "we are deeply disappointed with this ruling"

Angie Bray, the Greater London Assembly's Conservative transport spokesman, said the scheme was flawed, with "the most ill-suited roads selected as boundaries"

Tory Transport Secretary Eric Pickles has written to transport minister John Speller, demanding government action to block the new charge. He said "it will not cut congestion as traffic will increase around the tax zone border."

The executive director of the RAC Foundation, Edmund king said a congestion charging scheme without better public transport would bring "further misery" for road users. He said "London is yet to have the substantial public transport improvements it needs to enable congestion charging to work. Rushing the introduction of congestion charging will doom the scheme to failure"