Although the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, is promising a zero increase in council tax, he will be costing a typical household £180 a year in increased bus and Tube fares.

He is promising a greener, more affordable city but his policies will make London more expensive and more polluted.

Of all the political parties at City Hall, however, only the Green Party Group put forward a detailed, costed alternative to Boris Johnson's budget.

Our proposals would reverse the damaging cuts to work on the environment, housing and health, increase funding for cycling and public transport and cut fares.

All this would be funded by cancelling the Mayor's expensive plans to phase out bendy buses, reinstating plans for a £25 charge on the most polluting gas guzzlers and increasing the standard congestion charge to £10.

While the Mayor is proposing cuts and fare increases, the Greens are proposing a very modest council tax increase of just seven pence per week to help deliver a fairer, healthier London.

DARREN JOHNSON AM,

Green Party,

City Hall, Queen's Walk,

London.