Road charging schemes get a step closer
Draft Local Transport Bill to be put before parliament
The bill would give local authorities the power to trial a road pricing scheme in their towns and cities.
Although the main aim of the bill is to make the piloting of road charging schemes easier, there’re ominous signs in the small print; the bill demands that each scheme uses compatible technology – therefore making the linking of such schemes much easier - and allows the use of these pilots to be extended indefinitely.
Ministers have stated that a nation-wide scheme is at least a decade away – during which time they claim congestion levels will have raised by 25%. Any such scheme would charge up to £1.30 a mile on the busiest stretches of road at peak times.
The draft bill flies in the face of the 1.8 million people who signed a petition on the government website against such a scheme.
A government-backed report has argued that a national road-pricing scheme could rake in up to £25bn a year by 2025. The author of the work, former British Airways chief executive Sir Rod Eddington, has described the policy as an "economic no-brainer".
However, some local politicians are expressing concern over the pilot schemes and have accused the government of "blackmailing" local authorities into applying by using trial uptake as the release mechanism for additional public transport funding. Manchester and Birmingham have insisted that any pay-as-you-drive or congestion charge scheme will not be implemented without multi-billion pound investments in public transport.
There is more unrest over the trials at Westminster (both from Labour back benchers and the opposition), especially since a report into the proposals highlighted that low-income families, the unemployed and the disabled would be some of the worst affected under the schemes.
Ten areas have received government money to investigate schemes: Greater Manchester; west Midlands, incorporating Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry; east Midlands, in a joint bid by Leicester, Derby and Nottingham; Tyne and Wear; Durham; Bristol; Reading; Cambridgeshire; Shrewsbury and Norwich.
Manchester is the most advanced but does not expect to implement the pilot scheme until 2012 at the earliest.
...so on top of fuel costs (currently £80 per week), I would have to pay circa £156 [bold]per day[/bold] (just to get to and from work), then earn a wage (of course being subject to income Tax) that is enough to cover my mortgage and food bills...
It's another crazy
ing idea... one which I think is only an inevitabilty - just a matter of time. The government is blinkered... and we will have to pay even more just to get to work. it - Might just as well go on dole... At least I will be able to live where I choose and not get up until after peak times - but then it wouldnt matter cos i'd only need the car (or bus - yeah right) to get to the dole office (I suppose a few of us could share???), and not live somewhere for the sake of convenience... This country is a
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