Dave Hill has broken the story that the Western Congestion Charge will be abolished in 2010, once all the legal requirements have been suitably dealt with. The Mayor has since issued a press release stating that they received 28,000 responses and 67 per cent of individual respondents and 86 per cent of businesses wanted it to go. London Labour have responded criticising the loss of £70m in revenue and the impact on traffic and air......

Hot on the heels of the cut to step free access at South Ken Station eagle eyed Marc M on Skyscrapercity noticed something the journalists seem to have missed. While London may be a step closer to cycle hire and door-less buses, disabled Islington residents are one of the big victims of the Mayor's efficiency savings. In their own words TFL confirm that: "Our Business Plan for 2009/2010 - 2017/18 confirmed that some proposed......

In this age of clickety-click communications, it is possible to do practically anything on-line, including, apparently, sweeping your local park. Boris has launched his London-wide love-your-park initiative. The idea behind Help a London Park is that you vote for your local or favourite green space: the ten parks with the most marks will each get £400,000 to plant a few hardy perennials, slip in a few slides, or beef up that boardwalk. You’ve got ‘til......

Hackney may be the 2012 borough, but it seems that the council still can’t afford floodlights for the London Fields Lido. That’s probably ‘cos they’ve sent 20 teachers to Arizona to learn about poverty. Chunkiness is costing Lewisham and Greenwich councils in excess of £70 million each. Boris has caused Lordly mutterings with talk of scrapping the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square. Some very nasty alleged people are on trial for the alleged rape and......

Overseas students want to be near London. We can understand that. A depressed Croydon MP moonlighted whilst on sick leave from the Commons. He’s not planning to stand again. Boris has decided he loves skyscrapers after all. …which is good ‘cos we’re running out of housing at a rate of knots. Oyster Zip cards are not all that zippy. BAA say that Heathrow needs a high speed rail link AND the third runway. Greedy,......

Well here’s a fine thing – Londonist starts its Nature-ist column, and then suddenly Boris is all over it, rattling on about valuing London’s green spaces and maximising your local park’s potential. It all seems to come from a largely marketing-led website called Natural England. We’re sure they mean well, but we’re afraid we find that using the terms ‘strategic outcomes’ and 'nature' in the same sentence doesn’t seem right. And as for giving......

Boris gets tough – 15% spending cuts are to be made across the GLA budget. Josh Hartnett is suing the Mirror for a defamatory (if funny) tale of him acting salaciously in a London hotel foyer. Busy Boris: we learn that tomorrow he is to chair the first meeting of the Waste and Recycling Board. A Measure of Comfort for Bond fans: Quantum of Solace is to have its public premiere at the London......

Here’s what we’ve learned whilst you’ve been putting your Summer wardrobe back in mothballs: Those clever boffs at UCL have developed an on-line surname toy: trouble is it is so popular that it seems to be permanently fazed. Ken has defended Sir Ian Blair against claims of racism. Anyone wanna buy a Buddhist temple in Upper Norwood? The last lady veteran of WW1, who was originally from Lewisham, has died aged 109. A 15......

Getting your message heard by Whitehall's movers and shakers ain't no picnic, especially when they've been quaffing champagne with Team GB on the Beijing-London flight. This didn't deter the Manifesto Club, who used the bank holiday to take a stand against what they see as increasing paternalism in the way our public spaces are regulated. For those not nursing heinous hangovers, recovering from bewildering mayoral speeches or getting back on the (carnival) wagon yesterday,......

Those in line to win the South Central Rail franchise have been announced. The party’s in Poplar this weekend as the regeneration of the area is celebrated. As if Battersea power station wasn’t surreal enough, it is to host an international snow-boarding competition this autumn. Going for gold: 2012 needs sponsors. Boris denies saying that Dave talks ‘piffle’. A dude who posed as an anti-smoking guru and got £90,000 out of the NHS has......

London has a new food tsarina in the shape of the inimitable Farmer Rosie Boycott. Appointed by Boris as chairman of the London Food Board, Ms. Boycott is set to make us grow more stuff, look for more local stuff and eat better stuff. Londonist likes Rosie (actually, we’ve never met her, but we’re prepared to like her): she’s colourful, enthusiastic, fearless and fun. Most importantly she seems unlikely to subscribe to the nannying school......

Think back to those hazy pre-mayoral-voting days when you would gaze at loveable candidate Boris's mischievous face in your daily edition of the Evening Standard, and ruminate on his status as ‘one of us’, or 'man of the people'. Well, nostalgic friend, those days are over. Today's news reveals that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is not, as he would seem, just your average Tom, Dick or Harry. Johnson is the latest celebrity to......

Stable branding has been reintroduced in Bromley – but of leather tack, not of horses, Londonist was relieved to learn. Traffic at London’s toy airport is set to rise. The National Army Museum is publishing a selection of comments made by the general public concerning the war in Afghanistan. Boris wants all working Londoners to be paid a minimum of £7.45 an hour. London is no good for our Amy. But we can’t quite......

This morning every Londoner was extolled to get on their bike. Mayor Boris launched a Summer Cycling campaign, which involved having his picture taken with, er, lots of bikes. He revealed research from Transport for London that showed that while 1 in 3 of us has access to a bike (we hope this means 'owning' one - and does not include the thieving numbskulls who 'gain access' to your bike and then sell it......

Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend whilst you’ve been shivering at a summer garden party: Last cat standing: Blackjack, the last of 186 stray moggies at the Olympic site, is rescued by the Celia Hammond Trust. It’s really not OK to run people over, no matter how provocative they are: the prison van driver who mowed down a woman in Brixton is to be charged with murder. The Oyster system was down for 5......

Greenness is certainly suffering mixed fortunes today. For a start, Mayor Boris had originally moved to save trees, only this evening to reverse Ken's planned £25 CO2 congestion charge hike. Into the bargain he also thanked Porsche for donating their subsequent legal costs paid by Transport for London to charidee. Meanwhile a campaign launched last week to promote London's Outdoors included the temporary siting of an Outdoor Office in St James Park, but then......

Alex the Croydon gangsta seems a little lonely. The third runway debate at Heathrow rumbles on. There’s yet another racism allegation for the Met. Jennifer Aniston flies into London. And then straight out again.. Aren't we friends any more? Boris’ pledge to map the crime stats of London street by street has gotten hiccoughs. Paddington becomes a quinquagenarian if not in style, then at least with lots of fun. Croydon sunset from pixelhut’s flickr......

Britain's first super prison will probably be in London. Fancy a musical? Well hurry up, Cabaret has now posted closing notices following Spamalot & Gone With The Wind 8 years down the line, the London Eye has rotated it's 30 millionth visitor. We did Latin at University. It's amazing, but Boris, really? Are you absolutely sure it's the solution? And Rose Tremain has won the Orange Broadband Prize For Fiction. Photo taken from Envoy's......

Remember Mayor Ken's deal with Venezuela? He agreed to share expertise in areas like public transport and tourism - in return for a 20% discount on fuel bought for London's buses, which he then used to subsidise bus fares for thousands of Londoners on Income Support to 50p. During the election campaign, Boris Johnson referred to the deal wryly as "completely Caracas" and questioned the maths behind the whole thing. Now in post, there......

The founder of Carphone Warehouse is Boris’ new Olympics guru. Don’t drink the water. Well, at least not if you live in Colney Heath. The Cutty Sark is getting there but it could still do with a bit more dosh pretty please. There were horse-mounted naked women in Hyde Park today. To promote the film Godiva of course. And raise money for charity. You can now get mobile bike maps. If you see what......

The Boys (of the International Olympic Committee) are back in town . And everything’s looking peachy. Boris may be a bit short of funds for Crossrail. Pete Doherty seems to be able to play football. Is there no end to his talents? Walthamstow Race Track is going to the dogs. Well, actually, and very sadly we might add, it’s been sold to developers The mystery dude who spent sixty million on paintings last week......

Residents are less than happy about a mural in Streatham: they’re not really sure if it’s art. The new mayor’s new arts and culture director has some new ideas. Actually, Londonist reckons she’s sound. The Aussies are packing their bags in droves: apparently the jobs market is better down under. Boris is to retain his column in the Telegraph. And call it The New Londoner? Black Cab drivers look set to get a helping......

As one of a fair few carefully-calibrated measures in his first 100 days, new Mayor Boris announced today that, as promised, he would end publication of The Londoner, the Mayor's tabloid-style London free-sheet. If you never saw a copy, it felt a bit like a local newspaper. Only it was London-wide and not news at all - it was produced monthly by the Greater London Authority itself, not journalists, with adverts mostly coming from......

Londonist is so not holding its breath….but they be talking about Battersea Power Station again. An arsonist who targeted the Savoy is facing jail. Princes Wills and Harry looked on as injured service men and women were honoured at a special fund-raising ceremony outside St. Pauls last night. Londonist watched it on the telly and got all misty-eyed. Boris is white van man’s new best friend. Princess Beatrice is apparently on work experience as......

If you’re paying attention to the mayoral race you probably already know a little about where the candidates stand on crime and bendy buses. But what candidate will be best for your bank account? To help you answer that question, we’ve put together a quick economic summary of the big-party candidates: Ken Livingstone We already have a pretty good idea of what the incumbent will do in this area — more of the same.......

Here’s what we’ve learned whilst you’ve been making snowmen: It’s snowing. Perfect excuse for Terminal 5 to dig itself a little deeper. Time to spare? Got an historical leaning? Osterley House needs you. We’ve got sea-horses. In the Thames Estuary. Which apparently proves that our river's cleaner than it has been for a long time. Londonist’s mind is all boggled. Try this for size - Britney as Blanche Dubois on the West End stage.......

The police are still at it. Naughty use of credit cards that is. You’d think they’d’ve learned, having already featured on the Londonist rogues’ gallery. Time to start getting your act together, Team T5. It’s gone beyond a (early April Fools) joke. A woman has been killed following a police chase that went wrong in Bethnal Green. To strike or not to strike? Tube talks are underway. David Cameron is to back Boris. Now......

Here’s what we’ve learned while you’ve been battening down your hatches and bringing the cattle in: In the weekend crime round-up…police were rather cross to be shot at on Friday, while there was an unseemly brawl outside Claire’s Accessories (we blame the pink feather boas). And in the wannabe-crime round-up, meet the bunny burglar who managed to cage himself. Shiny new terminal, shiny new security measures: there will be fingerprinting for all at T5.......

The clearest thing to emerge from the mayoral race this week is that no one can agree about buses. The arguments began last Wednesday when Boris Johnson told Vanessa Feltz that the '21st Century' Routemasters he wants to replace bendy buses with would all have conductors and that these would cost 'eight million quid'. Ken Livingstone went on the show next day to say Boris’s figures were fine except he’d left a nought off......

Olympic news items are like buses, or decent Boris Johnson policies: you wait for ages then two come along at once. This week we've heard about the package of security measures announced for the Games, while the International Olympic Committee popped by to check up on how we're doing. The announcement in July 2005 of London's Olympic triumph came just hours before the worst terrorist atrocity the city has ever seen, so from the......