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Pay as you drive 'threat to privacy'

Motorists may reject pay as you drive road pricing because of worries that it threatens their privacy, MPs warn in a report today.

Fears that the public will not accept the monitoring of their movements required to make road pricing work have been highlighted by the Commons transport select committee.

The Government has sought to reassure motorists that the introduction of road pricing - possibly with the aid of "spy in the sky satellites" - would not threaten or intrude upon motorists.

But the committee, previously a strong supporter of road pricing, claims that present laws are inadequate to guarantee that drivers' privacy would not be undermined.

"Road pricing schemes have to be put in place with the agreement of the public," said Gwyneth Dunwoody, the committee chairman.

The Government's strategy to run pilot studies within urban centres, rather than on dual carriageways and motorways, has also come under attack from the MPs. "A range of town and city centre pricing schemes will not tell us a great deal about the impact of road pricing on inter-urban routes and major trunk roads," the committee warns.

Mrs Dunwoody also highlighted the dangers of motorists becoming confused if they were confronted with a patchwork of road pricing systems scattered across the country.

According to the committee, local authorities used as guinea pigs in the road pricing trials could be left facing huge debts, lasting up to 30 years. In the case of Greater Manchester, the one area which has confirmed that it is ready to run a trial, the bill would be £3 billion.

The Government has also come under attack over its decision to remove the legal requirement on local authorities to consult before introducing trials. The committee recommend that these proposals should be ditched and the requirement to consult the local population should remain.

The Department for Transport insisted that it would take action to guarantee motorists' privacy and added that it would not support any road pricing scheme that had "unacceptable social impacts."

The Liberal Democrats, while insisting that they backed the principle of road pricing, have admitted that the technology to make it work is still some way in the future.

Susan Kramer, the party's transport spokesman, has instead called for Britain to follow the example of Germany and press ahead with a lorry road charging scheme - an idea ditched by the Government - using the money raised to pay for public transport improvements.

The Government has sought to reassure motorists that the introduction of road pricing - possibly with the aid of "spy in the sky satellites" - would not threaten or intrude upon motorists

How very reassuring. Just like the report that police have asked to use camera data for a myriad of other purposes...

The committee has missed the point. The point of the whole system IS the surveillance potential, not the road pricing. You can get all the extra money you need from motorists just by putting up fuel tax and this would fulfil the "pay as you drive" criterion also without all the tracking.

Pay as you drive 'threat to privacy'

Motorists may reject pay as you drive road pricing because of worries that it threatens their privacy, MPs warn in a report today.

That will get thrown out as it isn't petitioning for anything.

Plastic tells all and sundry where you've been, when, how long it took you to get from garage to garage, what you bought in that shop, how much you spend per month. Where you like to take your holiday........even if you have a fetish!.......