Intranetics Motoring News Service

Road pricing bill presented to parliament

22nd May 2007 | BACK     PRINT

The government has presented a draft bill to parliament aimed at allowing the introduction of trial road pricing schemes across the country. However, some commentators have speculated that the Local Transport Bill will meet with stiff opposition in the House of Commons as MPs may seek to resist a measure that polls have found to be deeply unpopular with the general public.

For example, a survey of motorists conducted in Manchester found that most respondents were overwhelmingly against the introduction of road pricing. Following the large negative response, the local authority shelved plans for the introduction of a city centre congestion charging scheme modelled on the one London mayor Ken Livingstone successfully introduced in the capital.

A similar poll is to be conducted on a national level in September of this year and it is difficult to see the government meeting with a favourable response from the public, given the strength of opposition that was made evident on a Downing Street petition site recently. Nearly two million visitors to the site added their electronic signature to the petition, which called for plans for a national road pricing scheme to be scrapped.

Despite this, the government has stated that no changes have been made to the plans, which were first announced in 2005 by the-then Transport minister Alistair Darling. Some commentators have suggested that there is a lot resting on the success or failure of the trial road pricing schemes.

AA spokesman Paul Watters told the Daily Telegraph: "The local trials are make or break for the government's road pricing plans. If drivers feel they are significantly worse off and paying to sit in the same jams, the whole initiative will lose credibility".

It has been suggested that the charge rates in the trial area schemes will be around £1.30 per mile "on the busiest routes".

A report commissioned by the government concluded that the introduction of a national road pricing scheme could generate up to £25 billon per year by 2025. However, according to the Guardian, there has been some concern at local authority level that potential future funding is being used to "blackmail" councils into applying for the schemes in exchange for money to fund public transport.

According to the newspaper, "Manchester and Birmingham have insisted that pay-as-you-drive or congestion charge schemes will not be implemented without multi-billion pound investments in public transport".

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