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It’s supposed to emphasise that there is no option but to introduce road pricing to curb congestion on British roads.

It’s supposed to emphasise that there is no option but to introduce road pricing to curb congestion on British roads.

How about spending some of the money they screw out of us on the road network.....

People will think this is just another stealth tax

Now pay-as-you-go road taxes are in prospect

by RAY MASSEY
Last updated at 23:00pm on 30th November 2006


Toll rage: Motorists are set to face pay-
as-you-drive road toll charges of up to
£1.50 a mile under

Motorists are set to face pay-as-you-drive road toll charges of up to £1.50 a mile under 'stealth tax' proposals revealed in a major report commissioned by Gordon Brown.

The report by former BA chief executive Sir Rod Eddington will call for billions of pounds to be raised from Britain's 30 million motorists to provide funds to improve crumbling roads and struggling rail services.

But the proposals are set to prove hugely controversial with motorists in this country who are already face among the highest charges in terms of tax, petrol and speeding fines.

Published in advance of next week's Pre-Budget statement, Sir Rod's report is set to provide the blueprint for Chancellor Gordon Brown's transport policy as Prime Minister.

The proposals will also fuel controversy over increasing intrusion into citizens' privacy with cars to be fitted with electronic black boxes which will track their every movement either by satellite or roadside beacon.

Motorists be charged by the mile, with prices rising at times of peak congestion and lower when traffic is light. Drivers will receive an itemised bill each month setting out where they drove and how much it cost.

The most polluting cars, including 4x4s, are set to be charged the most.

The proposals have also sparked rows about how the cash raised will be used, with critics fearing that instead of being used to cut congestion, the money will become yet another Government cash-raising 'stealth tax'.

Ministers have already laid the ground for road-pricing by including legislation for pilot schemes in the Queen's Speech although the Treasury isacutely sensitive to the charge that it is gearing up for yet another tax grab.

Undert the Queens' Speech plans, regional road-pricing trials will start in five years.

The aim is to have a national jam-busting scheme in place by the middle of the next decade with drivers paying up to £1.50 a mile to use the busiest and most congested roads at peak time.

The Transport Department has declined to rule out charging 'gas-guzzlers' more than lower polluting vehicles.

This suggests a shift in policy towards more environmentally-friendly or 'green' measures.

Originally ministers insisted that pay-as-you-drive charges would replace road tax and petrol duty, and would be 'revenue neutral'.

But, driven by the new 'green' agenda, that commitment appears to have been abandoned.

Sir Rod's report will also call for greater spending on roads and on the railways - but with funds concentrated on easing bottlenecks rather than on major projects.

On the railways he believes that lengthening trains and platforms would be a more practical way to cope with congestion - particularly on busy commuter services in the South East of England.

For this reason, he is expected to reject the idea of a high speed North-South rail link, arguing that it is more cost effective for road and rail networks to be used more efficiently.

He will also call for a streamlining and shake up of the over-complex planning regime that hinders investment in big infrastructure projects.

But the former BA boss will, perhaps not surprisingly, back expansion of aviation, a move which will infuriate campaigners who oppose more airports and flights.

Sir Rod will argue that cutting congestion is essential to Britain's economic prosperity and that road pricing or 'demand management' schemes are more effective that costly multi-billion pound prestige schemes.

Ministers are also anxious to avoid the embarrassment of repeating ambitious promises of a fully 'integrated transport system' which has still yet to materialise. That was replaced six years ago by a 10-year plan, which itself was quietly pared back after Railtrack's collapse.

Tories say the need is for quick fixes now to go alongside longer term planning.

Last night the Conservatives accused the Government of publishing yet another report while failing to get to grips with Britain's 'urgent' transport problems.

Ahead of the Eddington Report , the Tories released their own strategy document setting out their priorities for the system.

The party called for a programme of rapid action to ease bottlenecks in the system, along with major longer-term projects to make a lasting difference to the traffic infrastructure.

And it said a much stronger green dimension and a more integrated approach to transport planning were needed.

The Conservative Strategy Document - entitled Getting Around: Britain's Great Frustration - sets out an initial foundation for the policies expected in the party's next election manifesto.

Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "The Government's latest report on transport - the Eddington Report - is the eighth major document they have produced on transport, and yet virtually all the improvements they promised in their 10-year plan for transport have been cancelled or kicked into the long grass."

He acknowledged that road pricing and tolling were likely to play an increased role in the strategy of any future Government, but added: "We certainly would not want to see premature moves to an untested national scheme. We believe that congestion charging and road pricing should be used to generate additional transport capacity rather than to price people off the roads altogether."

Mr Grayling noted: "The Government has clearly failed to follow through on its stated aim of improving our transport system - and for most people travel has become more difficult in the past 10 years.

"We have trains that are getting more and more overcrowded and roads that are getting more and more congested."

On the Eddington recommendations, environmental group Transport 2000 said: "We will support Eddington on road pricing, but only if revenues go back into public transport and other measures to give people real choice. We would oppose funding going towards big new roads programmes."

Road pricing was first floated by former Transport Secretary Alistair Darling - now Trade and Industry Secretary but tipped to be Chancellor under a Brown premiership - whose mantra in support of the policy was "doing nothing is not an option."

Mr Brown was also vociferous backer of Sir Nicholas Stern's 'green' recommendations for action on global warming.

It also emerged yesterday that a new Labour stealth tax is raking in £14 million a year by charging for replacement car registration documents – a service that was free just two years ago.

Motorists who lose their documents must now pay £19 to get a replacement under changes introduced at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency for the financial year 2005/06.

I still think this is a strategy so that they can 'compromise' and let us off with only a large rise in fuel tax, for which we will be expected to be eternally grateful.