· Philip Redman is a director of commercial property firm CB Hillier Parker. He drives to work each day from his home near Maidenhead, Berkshire

I have to say, on a philosophical level, I can't quarrel with congestion charging. It's certainly getting more and more difficult to move around central London. Even though this will hit me directly in the pocket, I don't have a fundamental problem with paying something.

What we should have, though, is a clear guarantee that the proceeds will go towards public transport alternatives.

My journey takes an average of about an hour and 20 minutes. The alternative is walking or driving from my home in Bray to Maidenhead, taking the train to Paddington and then catching two different tubes to Oxford Circus.

The nurse

· Shirley Quinn has been a district nurse in central London for 15 years. Based in St Johns Wood, she uses her car to visit housebound patients

I cover about six to 10 miles in my car each day. I use it for travel to and from the health centre and for patient visits. Some of the patients live quite a distance away from the health centre and on occasions, we carry equipment or medicines out to them. It's extremely important that they get visits - they receive all the nursing care in their homes that they would receive in hospital.

I'm very much opposed to the charge. We've already got terrible difficulties with recruitment of staff.

We've been told by the NHS trust that what might happen is we pay the £5 charge, but then we can claim it back as an expense. That means the taxpayer will foot the bill.

The meat trader

· Stephen Barefield's family business delivers pork legs to Smithfield Market in central London every morning. His lorries will have to pay the charge

Ken Livingstone's got these big ideas for London but I think they'll all backfire. It's upsetting ordinary, normal people who have to go into London for their daily business.

We cure 20,000 pork legs a week at our premises in Leyton, outside the zone. The meat goes all over the country but every day at least one lorry goes into central London to deliver to Smithfield.

I'm angry about the charge; it's just more overhead on the company. I think Smithfield will suffer enormously. Ultimately, companies won't want to come into London. I can't see Smithfield being there in five years - it'll have to move like the other big markets.

The taxi driver

· Steve McNamara, 43, has driven a black cab in London for 18 years. He lives in east London and as a public vehicle, his taxi will be exempt from the charge

I'm probably more benevolent towards Mr Livingstone than a lot of people and I actually do think he's very brave in trying congestion charging.

Traffic in London has been worse than ever recently. You've got chaos in Trafalgar Square and Holborn's been a one-way street for the last six months.

Contrary to what people think about us sitting there and watching the meter tick up, the last thing a cab driver wants is traffic. We do more business if we're moving around.

If the traffic is lighter in the centre, we'll have the benefit of a larger number of journeys. But we're also faced with a possible downside, that fewer people will come into central London.