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As this was his top priority on his election manifesto
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No it wasn't. Trust me on this. He merely promised to consult on the retention of the scheme, which he did, via TfL, and there was a slight majority in favour of retaining it or modifying it. At the same time various Tory councils held a completely unscientific write-in poll which found, surprise surprise, a majority in favour of abolition, which has been spun as 'widespread public support for abolition'. On the other hand there was a public Mayor's Question Time the other day where 66% supported retaining it, but that was in Brixton and thus a tough gig for the blond buffoon.
Boris would actually be advised to keep it, since abolishing it conflicts with a number of his other manifesto commitments around 'smoothing traffic flow', encouraging walking and cycling, making the streets more pleasant, not to mention the extremely hot issue of London's worsening air quality, which is hardly helped by blowing a hole in TfL's budget and allowing lots of 4x4s to jam up the streets.
Finally Boris has said on numerous occasions that he actually supports the concept of road pricing on ideological grounds, since he opposes the state handing things out for free, including road space, plus he has severe budget issues at TfL already owing to the recession and other costly schemes he's put in.
What's actually happening is that, since the CC is a political hot potato, there are checks and balances in place to assure the public that any changes to it are statutorily consulted on. The Tory la-la land position is that they don't exist, and therefore you don't have to follow them, but Boris's position, having regard to the legalities, is that they do exist and he does have to follow them. He's also already taken the PR boost from his consultation, so it's hard for him to turn round and say 'actually, that wasn't the real consultation we have to do legally, we've got to do another one'.
Basically it's the usual Boris cockup. He's also getting to be very unpopular with journalists due to his constant media manipulation (his spin doctor Guto Harri gets £125k a year and is one of the top four members of his team and also does Boris's Twitter for him) and refusal to hold press conferences, forcing the likes of Tim Donovan to chase him all over London trying to get a quote. Accusing the Evening Standard's City Hall reporter Kath Barney of effectively lying over the WEZ will-he-won't-he hardly helped - since her source was the Mayor's own transport adviser this went down very badly and she's been getting her own back with a series of damaging articles. There's also been quite a bit of leaking from senior sources. Not a particularly happy ship, but that's what happens when you elect idiots off the telly.