Pay as you drive
Discussion
Government takes £50 billion in motorist taxes but spends only £10 billion on the roads. They are even giving are Road taxes to anti motorist groups to tarnish the image of the Car/Drivers. Are we all too busy quietly working and Polishing are Cars whilst being abused by the people we pay.
The Govt don't want the cars on the road, full stop. BUT they want the revenue the motorist pays. Same as revenue from tobacco & booze, any excuse to screw "Joe Public" for every penny they can get.
As with the Poll Tax a few years ago, the public will only take so much.....Come the revolution !
As with the Poll Tax a few years ago, the public will only take so much.....Come the revolution !
gus607 said:
The Govt don't want the cars on the road, full stop. BUT they want the revenue the motorist pays. Same as revenue from tobacco & booze, any excuse to screw "Joe Public" for every penny they can get.
As with the Poll Tax a few years ago, the public will only take so much.....Come the revolution !
I don't agree. The gubbermint don't give a sAs with the Poll Tax a few years ago, the public will only take so much.....Come the revolution !
t if we're on the road or not - they just want/need the money, and the motorist is an easy-to-milk cash cow.Power2weight said:
The Government is about to give the green light to Pay as you Drive tolls / Higher rates of Road tax for Motorway users. Is the Government right to say this is the only answer to our failing roads or is the motorist just an easy target to raise revenue yet again ?.
You're jumping the gun.The Government are putting the discussion on the table. They are also talking about linking VED to upkeep of the roads, which is a good thing.
The population is growing through a baby boom. The previous baby boom is retiring. The group in middle, who are responsible for paying for it all, are proportionately shrinking.
If we want to maintain our quality of government provided services spread over that larger population, a greater proportion of whom are net beneficiaries rather than contributors, we're going to have to pay more. That includes for using resources such as the roads.
so, let's get this right, we can afford to print some £350Bn money to give to banks (effectively) but we can't afford to pay for decent roads (that the users of already pay 10+ times that in road tax and fuel duty).
the worse part of this is you know any road charging will be an IT disaster give to one of the usual crap companies who will massively underestimate in both time and money, and then go on to make another large fortune with zero improvement in the roads for 99.9% of users.
PPI is not the answer either (just look at the mess the NHS is in).
I don't want to come across all Labour or the link, but some government capitol investment in infrastructure upgrades would be money well spent - far better than paying for Solar in Africa and the like.
Same deal with national grid, I really disagree with banging more money on out bills when it's supposed to be a national asset.
if you cut all the money going to so called green crap/windmills/solar/etc. we could pay for this stuff eaily.
the worse part of this is you know any road charging will be an IT disaster give to one of the usual crap companies who will massively underestimate in both time and money, and then go on to make another large fortune with zero improvement in the roads for 99.9% of users.
PPI is not the answer either (just look at the mess the NHS is in).
I don't want to come across all Labour or the link, but some government capitol investment in infrastructure upgrades would be money well spent - far better than paying for Solar in Africa and the like.
Same deal with national grid, I really disagree with banging more money on out bills when it's supposed to be a national asset.
if you cut all the money going to so called green crap/windmills/solar/etc. we could pay for this stuff eaily.
Think it was GB and TB that gave us the congestion charge, didn't scrape the QE2 tolls as originally agreed oh and brought in this bullst stepped VED based on emissions.
Oh and the poll tax was fair and should have stayed - 2 identical homes, one with 2 adults, the other with 3 or 4. How/why is them paying the same fair? Paying per person under the poll tax was fair but there you go.
t stepped VED based on emissions. Oh and the poll tax was fair and should have stayed - 2 identical homes, one with 2 adults, the other with 3 or 4. How/why is them paying the same fair? Paying per person under the poll tax was fair but there you go.
Chicane-UK said:
The sheer cheek of tolling roads (even if it is "new reads or substantially altered existing roads") just blows my mind. We pay a goddamn fortune on road tax & fuel duty. I hope that motorists will unite at protesting this if it looks like new toll roads are going ahead.
We don't pay *that* much more than, for example, France (fuel is similar, etc) and people tend to comment what lovely fast flowing roads they have....If it was actually combined with an integrated transport policy, driving freight onto trains and long term infrastructure investment then I would be interested in the arguments.
Sadly for politicians, a fully integrated transport policy would take 15+ years for the impacts to be felt - too long in political terms.
davepoth said:
They paid for those roads with EU money and unsustainable debt though. 
As individuals and a nation we're in no position to lecture on building things with unsustainable debt.Upkeeping the country costs money, an increasing burden of which falls on a shrinking section of society. That means taxes need to be levied upon those most able to afford to pay. Motorists, whether they like it or not, are seen as a group able to shoulder tax hikes.
gus607 said:
The Govt don't want the cars on the road, full stop !
Yes they do, they pay lip sevice to the greens, but they can't afford for us not to be driving. Just look at the scappage scheme. As soon as we stopped buying cars they set up a subsidy to get people to buy them. It was only a few years ago they added a big tax to new cars. They didn't even just subsidise green cars, you could scrap a prius and buy a range rover if you wanted.[quote=Grenoble]
We don't pay *that* much more than, for example, France (fuel is similar, etc) and people tend to comment what lovely fast flowing roads they have....
I agree France has some fantastic roads, however the UK is half the land mass, and has more people.
One way to look at reducing congestion is to move freight back to rail, the number of heavy lorries on our roads is insane.
Integrating the transport system will never work, private transport companies work for profit, getting a bus into out town in very expensive
add in a couple of kids to go shopping and you are looking at close to a Tenner return. Going on the train anywhere without booking 2 years in advance is a joke.
Visiting out of supermarkets cannot be done on a bus if your doing a family weekly shop, you have to make taking other forms of transport attractive to people
if it means more cost amd more hassle it will never work.
We are wedded to our cars, with that comes a cost unfortunately
We don't pay *that* much more than, for example, France (fuel is similar, etc) and people tend to comment what lovely fast flowing roads they have....
I agree France has some fantastic roads, however the UK is half the land mass, and has more people.
One way to look at reducing congestion is to move freight back to rail, the number of heavy lorries on our roads is insane.
Integrating the transport system will never work, private transport companies work for profit, getting a bus into out town in very expensive
add in a couple of kids to go shopping and you are looking at close to a Tenner return. Going on the train anywhere without booking 2 years in advance is a joke.
Visiting out of supermarkets cannot be done on a bus if your doing a family weekly shop, you have to make taking other forms of transport attractive to people
if it means more cost amd more hassle it will never work.
We are wedded to our cars, with that comes a cost unfortunately
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