Date published: 2007/05/22
The BBC says:
The government is pushing ahead with plans to introduce road pricing schemes in England and Wales despite a huge public campaign against them.
It has published a draft Bill updating the rules for local authorities who want to set up charging trials.
It insists there are no plans yet for a national scheme but critics say it is not being open about its intentions.
A petition against road pricing on the Downing Street website received nearly two million online signatories.
Widespread road pricing is at least 10 years away technically - but 10 local authorities have expressed an interest in developing charging systems in their areas.
The draft Local Transport Bill will ensure any local schemes are consistent with each other and interoperable.
But a Transport department spokesman said this did not mean the government was pressing ahead with a national pay-as-you-drive scheme.
"No decision has been made on a national scheme. We have got to see the results of the pilot schemes," he said.
He said there would be a three month consultation period for those in favour and against road pricing to have their say before a final Bill is drawn up.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his February reply to the Downing Street website petition, also insisted no decision had been made on national road pricing.
But he said congestion could not be allowed to grow unchecked and any scheme would not be used as a "stealth tax".
Conservative Transport Spokesman Chris Grayling said: "If the rumours about the Bill are right, it is clear that Gordon Brown has his eye on the revenue a national scheme would bring in.
"This Bill, from Douglas Alexander, one of his key lieutenants, shows Brown's determination to introduce national road pricing is just as strong as Tony Blair's was."
Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Alistair Carmichael accused the government of not being open about its plans for a nationwide scheme.
"The government must be open and honest with people about its intentions to push forward with road pricing.
"They must commit to a system which does not mean motorists as a whole paying more, but just paying differently.
"If the public feel that road user pricing is just another cash cow for the Treasury, then it will meet stiff resistance and a real opportunity to reduce congestion will be missed."
The government better have pilot trials. Having a national rollout "cold turkey" would no doubt lead to a disaster. Of course whether these pilot trials really reflect what would happen with a national rollout is a different question. The pilot trials may well be voluntary, in which case they might prove that certain technology would or would not work, but that is all. It will not tell us how people would react to road pricing, although it is clear that the real aim is to kick poor people off the roads so that companies and rich people can more easily go about their business.
The Tories and Lib Dems are just pathetic. They both want road pricing (since they both pretend they are "green", which for the chattering class means you hate car drivers) but they also both want to play silly political games. All governments (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem) will use road pricing as a cash cow, in the same way that all governments now use petrol tax as a cash cow. Road pricing cannot even be tax neutral since someone has to pay for the huge cost of implementing the system, and of course that will be drivers. If the Tories or Lib Dems were even half-honest they would admit this, and tell the country what they would do differently.
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