Row erupts over road charging

'Where's the money coming from?', asks ABD

By PH Staff / Monday, 11 July 2005 / Loading comments

Where's the money coming from?

A row has broken out over where the cash for road pricing is to come from. In a recent statement, transport secretary Alistair Darling said that he would make £18 million available "to support planning for local demand management schemes where road pricing is a major element". It's money for road charging, in other words.

Darling said that "these schemes could be funded from the Transport Innovation Fund." Yet according to drivers' body the Association of British Drivers (ABD), the fund was intended as a mechanism for long term transport planning and investment.

The ABD reckoned that this was "a clumsy attempt to force through his pet scheme to price us all off the roads. Councils won't be able to get the money unless their scheme involves the kind of road tolls that the people of his native Edinburgh so decisively rejected in the recent referendum."

ABD spokesman Mark McArthur-Christie said: "Announced just before the G8 Summit and London's Olympic bid [before the London tragedy last Thursday, Ed], this looks rather as though Mr Darling is trying to bury bad news -- and it is bad news for road users. Making vitally needed transport funding conditional on imposing road pricing is a cynical move designed to bribe councils into sidestepping the will of the people."

Rather than promoting genuinely innovative transport schemes, the DfT has said: "The answer's road pricing -- now what was the question?"

The ABD said it believes that, while properly funded public transport is vital, the modern economy depends on personal, flexible transport where individuals are able to choose their route and journey time without government interference.

McArthur-Christie said: "Yet again the Government has a one track mind on transport. This is like having a toolbox with just a hammer in it — every problem looks like a nail. We need a full transport toolbox, where individuals can decide the best form of transport for their journey — be that bus, cycle, car, motorbike or train."