Safe Speed Forums

http://www.itv-motoring.com/news/2005/june/08/6278.asp

Negative reactions to Alistair Darling's proposal for satellite-based road pricing continue to come in. ACFO, which represents around 850 car and van fleet operators, is broadly in favour of Government intentions to reduce congestion, but in the words of Director Stewart Whyte "it is vital that Mr Darling and his colleagues listen very carefully to the views of the fleet community.

"The fleet and business communities buy the majority of new cars and vans in the UK and typically drive higher mileages than private motorists. Therefore, the businesses which we represent must play a huge role in the discussion going forward.

"While the Government says congestion charging will be revenue neutral there are bound to be winners and losers in any new system. ACFO fears that fleets will almost certainly be worse off as a result of both the tax change and the undoubted rise in administration costs."

Acknowledging that road pricing might not come into force for the next 15 years, Whyte added that "establishing such a scheme will cost hundreds of millions of pounds in infrastructure and software developments. We already have thousands of uninsured cars on the roads, thousands of motorists who flout VED and thousands of people who take to the roads but who don't have a driving licence. How does the Government intend to make these people pay-as-they-drive?"

Safe Speed, the organisation which normally concentrates on the existence of speed cameras, has issued a statement saying that "these road pricing proposals are so full of holes and problems that we cannot afford to take seriously the proposers.

"That this proposal has the Support of the Secretary of State for Transport is staggering. Mr Darling must be replaced and the Department for Transport subjected to intense scrutiny because it simply isn't talking sense."

We've had more comments from readers on the same subject. "If Alistair Darling gets his way and road pricing is introduced," says one, "I do hope the Government hasn’t the brass neck to retain tax on fuel. After all, drivers already pay taxes according to the amount they use the roads, it is there in the price at the pump.

"I also hope that, if Road Pricing is to go ahead, the Government delay it long enough to get a decent public transport infrastructure in place. Half a century ago, before Beeching etc., my parents never had a car, we went everywhere on foot, bike, bus or train, and there were sufficient services to make it possible to do so. I doubt many people could manage it these days."

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