Timber Floor Au

Drivers Facing £1.40-a-Mile Charge



The aim of the new proposals is to cut congestion on Britain's busiest roads


Motorists could be made to pay up to £1.40 a mile to use certain roads under radical new proposals being considered by the Government.

The charges are recommended in a report commissioned by the Government into cutting congestion on Britain's roads.

Under the proposals from the Commission for Integrated Transport, charges for using roads would vary according to location and time of day.

Drivers would have free access to quiet country lanes but face punitive rates if they wanted to use busy city streets or motorways at rush hour.





In return, licence disc charges would be scrapped and fuel duties brought down to the average European level, keeping the overall tax burden on motorists the same as it is now.

The commission's chairman, Professor David Begg, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The proposal is not to increase the tax burden on road users in the UK, but simply to change the way we pay.

"The £1.40 figure would apply to 0.5 per cent of all the roads in Britain. A great number of road users would pay less.

"The big prize is that you slash congestion in urban areas by half and cut congestion on motorways by one third."







Surveys for the commission found that 65 to 70 per cent of motorists would be prepared to accept the introduction of targeted congestion charging as long as other motoring taxes were cut.

And one-quarter of those using city streets during rush hours said they would be ready to drive at a different time of day if there was a financial incentive to do so.

"We are not trying to chase everyone off the roads," said Professor Begg. "The problem is too many vehicles trying to get on certain roads at the same time.

"We are trying to spread that load. It's the same way you do it with any other product - the price mechanism comes in and when there is excess demand, the price you pay goes up."

wmoore

I know of people from several villages (village people?) who would object to this, for obvious reasons.
I agree in principal to the "the more you drive the more you pay" kind of scheme but we already have this in a way with tax on fuel. The bigger issue for us drivers is the total amount of tax we pay for the pleasure (or otherwise) of motoring when put against the poor quality of a lot of our roads.

hunnypot

Why doesn't the Uk government scrap road tax altogether, put the extra cost on fuel and with the extra that they collect from every motorist put this towards the repair of our roads. This way with the extra cost on fuel there can be no road car tax dodgers.

Toll roads have been brought in to aid congestion, this money should also be put towards road repairs.

just a thought ...

wmoore

Sounds sensible. In which case you'll never make it as a politician

Olive101

That would penalise those in rural areas who, generally, are likely to have higher mileage by necessity than those in urban areas.

How about those pensioners in the country with little or no public transport who need to get to their (no longer local) post office for their pension?

How about income related direct taxation (an extra penny in every pound, say) to go into providing comprehensive, reliable, clean and ecologically efficient public transport, especially in the regions.

Here in Brentwood, if I want to get to the (very busy) commuter station to commute to Central London, I have the choice of just two buses over the space of a 3 hour period and the last bus leaves the station at 5.30pm!!!

Madness.

Although I do not object to toll fares in principle (it works very well in France for instance) - Britain is so overcrowded that it is bound to force heavy traffic (including HGV's whose profits are already squeezed by high fuel taxes) onto the already congested 'quiet' country roads.

Apologies for the over zealous tone of this post - I'm not usually drawn into polotical debates.