TfL tries to save Western Extension of C-charge

Transport for London, TfL, has launched an online "consultation" for Londoners who have views on the future of the western extension of the zone. You can see it here. It's clear that TfL don't want the zone to go and they mean to find ways to keep it. Mayor Johnson now also appears to have abandoned his pledge to be rid of it, which has caused no small amount of controversy recently.

Our own Council is adamant that Mayor Johnson should keep his pledge, abandon this "consultation" and all other hoops that TfL want to set up to be jumped through before they will do anything, and get on with it. I'm inclined to agree, on two grounds. First, that if a politician is elected by a popular mandate with a clear pledge, whether you personally agree with it or not, he has a duty to follow it through. That, after all, is democracy. Secondly, it is clear to me that the zone has not lived up to its promise which was made to west London, namely that it would cut traffic. If anything traffic around the edges of the zone where we live is much much worse as people try to skirt the zone.

There are other reasons and you will have your own views, but the real point of this post is to ask the question: now that our Council has fallen out with the Mayor on this and this, and relations between them are so poor, what influence do they really have left with City Hall to lobby for the Bush's interests?