Cameron wants to privatise roads (again)
Discussion
For those who voted for this muppet, I bet you didn't vote for this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cam...
I think we should investigate his and family links to the companies who will take on this sort of work. Funny how they can hypothecate some of the vehicle excise duty to private firms, but they couldn't do that when they had control of actually fixing and improving the bloody road network.
I think/hope CMD is just about to sign his electoral demise. Never vote Tory again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cam...
Daily T said:
The Prime Minister will warn that Britains road network is falling behind the rest of the world as he suggests that private companies should run motorways and A-roads.
Under the plans, the companies will receive a portion of the annual vehicle licence fee to maintain and upgrade the network. Firms would also be encouraged to build new motorways and roads that would be funded by tolls.
The Prime Minister will urge Britain to follow the example set by the Victorians by embarking on a new era of infrastructure building.
He will announce a new feasibility study to develop ways to bring private investment into Britains major roads, which independent experts calculate could be worth up to 100billion.
In a speech today, Mr Cameron will say: We need good roads The problems clear: we dont have enough capacity in places of key demand. Theres nothing green about a traffic jam - and gridlock holds the economy back.
So heres what we should do. Yes, move passengers and heavy goods on to rail. But also widen pinch points, add lanes to motorways by using the hard shoulder to increase capacity.
He will add: We need to look at innovative approaches to the funding of our national roads - to increase investment to reduce congestion.
Road tolling is one option - but we are only considering this for new, not existing, capacity. For example, were looking at how improvements to the A14 could be part-funded through tolling.
Senior sources said Britain was virtually unique in having a publicly-owned and maintained road network.
Under one plan to be considered, the countrys roads would be leased for several decades to a consortium of private companies. There may be different operators for each region.
An independent regulator would then pay the consortium a percentage of the annual road tax to maintain and upgrade the network.
As with water companies, the private companies would be able to make a certain amount of profit annually from the contracts, which would effectively be set by the regulator.
Last night, it was not clear whether the Government would sell the roads or simply save money by paying private companies less to maintain and upgrade them than they currently cost to run.
New roads would also be built by operators who would then charge motorists directly - with the tolls also controlled by an independent regulator.
In todays speech, the Prime Minister will speak of his frustration at Britains increasingly poor and ageing infrastructure. The truth is, we are falling behind, he will say. Falling behind our competitors. And falling behind the great, world-beating, pioneering tradition set by those who came before us.
There is now an urgent need to repair the decades-long degradation of our national infrastructure and to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did.
Infrastructure matters because it is the magic ingredient in so much of modern life It affects the competitiveness of every business in the country; it is the thread that ties our prosperity together.
I don't have time at the moment but can someone remind me what Tories said about this at last election.Under the plans, the companies will receive a portion of the annual vehicle licence fee to maintain and upgrade the network. Firms would also be encouraged to build new motorways and roads that would be funded by tolls.
The Prime Minister will urge Britain to follow the example set by the Victorians by embarking on a new era of infrastructure building.
He will announce a new feasibility study to develop ways to bring private investment into Britains major roads, which independent experts calculate could be worth up to 100billion.
In a speech today, Mr Cameron will say: We need good roads The problems clear: we dont have enough capacity in places of key demand. Theres nothing green about a traffic jam - and gridlock holds the economy back.
So heres what we should do. Yes, move passengers and heavy goods on to rail. But also widen pinch points, add lanes to motorways by using the hard shoulder to increase capacity.
He will add: We need to look at innovative approaches to the funding of our national roads - to increase investment to reduce congestion.
Road tolling is one option - but we are only considering this for new, not existing, capacity. For example, were looking at how improvements to the A14 could be part-funded through tolling.
Senior sources said Britain was virtually unique in having a publicly-owned and maintained road network.
Under one plan to be considered, the countrys roads would be leased for several decades to a consortium of private companies. There may be different operators for each region.
An independent regulator would then pay the consortium a percentage of the annual road tax to maintain and upgrade the network.
As with water companies, the private companies would be able to make a certain amount of profit annually from the contracts, which would effectively be set by the regulator.
Last night, it was not clear whether the Government would sell the roads or simply save money by paying private companies less to maintain and upgrade them than they currently cost to run.
New roads would also be built by operators who would then charge motorists directly - with the tolls also controlled by an independent regulator.
In todays speech, the Prime Minister will speak of his frustration at Britains increasingly poor and ageing infrastructure. The truth is, we are falling behind, he will say. Falling behind our competitors. And falling behind the great, world-beating, pioneering tradition set by those who came before us.
There is now an urgent need to repair the decades-long degradation of our national infrastructure and to build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did.
Infrastructure matters because it is the magic ingredient in so much of modern life It affects the competitiveness of every business in the country; it is the thread that ties our prosperity together.
I think we should investigate his and family links to the companies who will take on this sort of work. Funny how they can hypothecate some of the vehicle excise duty to private firms, but they couldn't do that when they had control of actually fixing and improving the bloody road network.
I think/hope CMD is just about to sign his electoral demise. Never vote Tory again.
Derek Smith said:
So the tax-payer's money will be given to companies who will build roads and then charge the taxpaers for using them.
So we will pay for roads forever, another debt placed on children.
Or have I got it wrong?
Nope, you have got it spot on in my opinion.So we will pay for roads forever, another debt placed on children.
Or have I got it wrong?
Waits for newspaper story some time in the future about 100,000 bill to repaint 3 feet of white line.
I saw a news item yesterday where in the melee of reporting 39.7bn from vehicle tax and 9.7 bn spend on the roads they quoted that 11bn was needed to bring the roads up to scratch.
11 bn (eleven billion) that's too little, surely? Just repairing potholes, maybe, but not sorting out the network.
So what is the figure that is needed?
11 bn (eleven billion) that's too little, surely? Just repairing potholes, maybe, but not sorting out the network.
So what is the figure that is needed?
Dixie68 said:
Wammer said:
So are you not believing what i have just said then. Proove me wrong
I suspect you haven't read many of the threads on PH - we aren't exactly Labour supporters here so calm down 
Why should we proove (sic) you wrong? I don't want to prove you wrong, but in your intemperate rant you have only dealt with one facet of the overall issues facing the country.
Anyway you are obviously on message, report back when you've got your next BBM from Millbank.
Interesting how the privatisations are based on different starting point these days. When the electricity industry was privatised a big issue was that the companies who took over the plant insisted on a level playing field.
Thus in the run up there was a massive refurbishment programme to get, for example, the power stations up to full spec. New pressure parts and so on, massive effort.this was all because of creating competition. Since then we've seen that investment in that plant has been more or less as little as they can get away with, slightly stretching a point as some operators are better than others but even so the plants, with perhaps the exception of Drax are rather run down and shadows of their former selves. Various reasons for that including the dash for gas.
Now it's a case of this potential privatisation you will get whatever it is in the state it is, and this says to me they know there is no competitive element.
I didn't vote for Cons last election as thney resolutely refused to engage on issues about their policies. They still pretty much refuse to engage, and I am fairly confident that the local MP will be out on his ear next time to be replaced by a candidate with medical background, bit like Dr Richard Taylor did in Wyre Forest.
But I'm in same boat as Elroy B, nobody for my vote, UKIP were a complete letdown.
Thus in the run up there was a massive refurbishment programme to get, for example, the power stations up to full spec. New pressure parts and so on, massive effort.this was all because of creating competition. Since then we've seen that investment in that plant has been more or less as little as they can get away with, slightly stretching a point as some operators are better than others but even so the plants, with perhaps the exception of Drax are rather run down and shadows of their former selves. Various reasons for that including the dash for gas.
Now it's a case of this potential privatisation you will get whatever it is in the state it is, and this says to me they know there is no competitive element.
I didn't vote for Cons last election as thney resolutely refused to engage on issues about their policies. They still pretty much refuse to engage, and I am fairly confident that the local MP will be out on his ear next time to be replaced by a candidate with medical background, bit like Dr Richard Taylor did in Wyre Forest.
But I'm in same boat as Elroy B, nobody for my vote, UKIP were a complete letdown.
Use Psychology said:
why not just take the same money... a percentage of the total intake from the road fund licence... and er, use it to maintain and build roads... rather than using it to pay someone to slice a bit off and using the left-overs to, er, maintain and build roads.
Quite, presumably because that does not pay off the cronies who paid for the campaign to get them into power, or ensure the rake off for relations and other cronies, ex fags from public school and so on.To turn to the question of why the despondency on PH, it is because the majority have now recognised what some of us warned about pre election, CMD being Bliar Mk2.
We saw hard earned taxes being blown by Labour on useless stuff, we see the same here, just different stuff to some extent. We see massive amounts being spent on the green god, costing again our taxed income.
mrs Thatcher came in with an agenda to pay back the unions and the miners. Not saying it didn't need doing, but it was done very coldly and quite vindictively. However she knew where the limits were. Cameron has come back with the vindicxtive intention of paying back the police for Sheehy, and he is being cold and vindictive about it, but he is that stupid he is doing it at a time when he will need the police, except there won't be any.
Largely members on PH are the sort the nation needs, individuals prepared to work hard, look after themselves and theirs, not be a burden, be enterprising, and yet we continue to get milked of everything and more by these political careerists who have largely done nothing.
As somebody said, watch Question Time to see how vacuous these people are. It's only the cosiness of the Beeb in screening the audience and controlling the audience that prevents them from being ripped apart each week.
Not one of them have common sense or compassion.
Would they survive in a country which didn't have the British attitude of "complain abot problem, well musn't grumble, better get off to work." but had one of genuine revolution, with genuine statesman/woman standing in the wings?
May I just point out that I was the first person on this thread to mention that Cameron came back with a vindictive bent to get his own back on the police for Sheehy.
I have no axe to grind, I am not the target of any of Cameron's antics with the job, except that the service I will get as a concerned citizen will deteriorate.
Don't pick on Elroy for simply saying how it is.
Sorry EB, you can stick up for yourself well enough, I know that, but it needed saying by an independent.
Don't let the b
ds grind you down, neither SMT nor those on here.
Some of us appreciate what the bib do with so little for so little. Rest of you would do well and see what you pay each week for your local force, and then think what that might buy you in the real world, a biro, a plastic ruler, and a chocolate bar probably.
Cue attempted comedic comments from tts about chocolate bobbies.
I have no axe to grind, I am not the target of any of Cameron's antics with the job, except that the service I will get as a concerned citizen will deteriorate.
Don't pick on Elroy for simply saying how it is.
Sorry EB, you can stick up for yourself well enough, I know that, but it needed saying by an independent.
Don't let the b
ds grind you down, neither SMT nor those on here. Some of us appreciate what the bib do with so little for so little. Rest of you would do well and see what you pay each week for your local force, and then think what that might buy you in the real world, a biro, a plastic ruler, and a chocolate bar probably.
Cue attempted comedic comments from t
ts about chocolate bobbies.Sorry for the thread necro, and get it back on topic after the serious diversion but
Proposing to put tolls on the A14 in Cambridgeshire
Proposing to put tolls on the A14 in Cambridgeshire
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