The mayor of London Boris Johnson is planning to raise the cost of driving into the central London congestion charge zone to £10.

However, fleets that register under the Fleet Auto Pay system will get a £1 discount, which corresponds to a £2 per vehicle increase.

Johnson is also planning to scrap the western extension to the charging zone by December.

West London never wanted the Western Extension and it is right that residents there can now tell us whether this Christmas should see the end of it, said Johnson.

In addition, he has promised to make Auto Pay accounts simpler.

"The central zone still plays a useful role but it has to be administered more fairly and straightforwardly, which is why I'm delighted the proposals include changes that should mean no one need ever be fined again," said Johnson.

However, Fleet News (May 27) highlights the major problems fleets are experiencing trying to register their cars on the fleet auto pay system.

It also highlights how fleets are receiving multiple fines that should never have been issued for cars that have either been removed from the system by mistake or have been duplicated on the system.

Now it is proposed that fleet operators registered with the troubled Fleet Auto Pay system will face a daily charge up from £7 to £9 per vehicle, and the minimum number of vehicles on the fleet account would decrease to six from 10.

"Currently, operators of fleets with ten or more vehicles registered for Fleet Auto Pay receive a £1 discount on the current daily charge. It is proposed that, alongside the introduction of CC Auto Pay for all Congestion Charge users, this discount is removed so that fleet operators would pay the same per vehicle (£9) as all other customers using the new CC Auto Pay (£9)," said the consultation document.

"In addition, the minimum number of vehicles a fleet operator could register would be reduced to six."

The public consultation is now underway on the proposed changes to the congestion charge.

If approved the last charging day for the Western Extension could be Christmas Eve, with other changes coming into effect on 4 January 2011.

The Western Extension would be suspended as normal over the festive period then from 4 January the congestion zone will revert to substantially the same boundaries as existed prior to the Western Extension being added in 2007.

The Mayor also intends on widening the eligibility criteria for the electric vehicle discount to include plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The current Alternative Fuel Discount provides a 100% discount to some vehicles that are powered by an alternative fuel.

However, some benefits of the alternative fuels have been outpaced by technological developments in other vehicles. This means that some new vehicles that do not qualify for the Alternative Fuel Discount have better environmental performance than some vehicles that do qualify.

It is proposed that the Alternative Fuel Discount be closed to new registrations on 24 December 2010.

Owners of vehicles registered with TfL before that date would continue to receive a 100% discount for a two-year period.

More information on the consultation, including the supporting documents, are available from TfL's website at www.cclondon.com