That is the journalists spin on the story - not a comment by a government spokesperson.
No that says that they are going to continue with their plans to
trial different schemes.
No that says "
no decision had been made on whether to introduce a national scheme".
None of which are facts.
There are several different schemes that they are going to be
trailed. For instance some would be like the current London congestion charge which requires no additional hardware in a vehicle.
I suggest you go and read the various reports and what they are actually going to be doing in the various trials. A report with a lot of links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6160877.stm
Many people claimed that the London congestion charging system would not work and although it is not perfect it certainly does work.
Personally I would rather the government "waste" money in actually getting evidence before they make a decision, it is about time that we started
demanding "evidence based" governance rather then relying on "what a bloke in the pub said".
"Congestion in central London is almost as bad as it was before the daily charge was introduced four years ago, according to official figures. Traffic delays have risen sharply in the past two years and will rise further next week when the zone doubles in size with a westwards extension into Kensington and Chelsea"
Transport for London said.
The loss of most of the benefits of congestion charging is causing concern in other cities that have been considering whether to follow London’s lead.
Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is so concerned by the rise in delays that he is planning to bring forward the introduction of a £25 daily charge for vehicles with high emissions from 2010 to June or July 2008. Almost a fifth of vehicles (18 per cent) that currently pay the £8 charge will be liable for the new top rate, which applies to cars in band G for road tax. Thats an extra £6000 a year tax they will pay.
And maybe you should ask the people of West London how good they think it is as they are just about to see it in action. By the way, road pricing is supposed to be "instead of" rather than as well as fuel, and road tax. Or that is how the government spin goes. Do the people in London pay less tax on fuel or lower road tax? Nope, didn't think so. Do you think we will, when road pricing is introduced? Really?
From :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4610877.stm
The government is planning to replace road tax and petrol duty with road charging. Here is an outline of the key points of Transport Secretary Alistair Darling's plan:
Each driver would be charged for every mile of his or her journey.
Prices would start from as little as 2p a mile on quiet roads outside rush hours.
Drive down country lanes in the middle of the night then, you will be fine. Shame I don't work as a farmer on night shifts. Unfortunately, I have to drive at peak times.
The maximum price would be £1.34 a mile on busy motorways like the M25 at peak times.
Going by these figures the M5/M42 route, which I use, will come in at around £1 approx per mile. Thats 30 miles a day, at peak times, at a cost of £30 a day. £150 per week. £600 a month. Plus the 12 miles I do to take my kids to school and back. Shall we say 30p a mile? (Main route into my home town). That's an extra £3.60 a day. A total of £33.60 a day, £168 week, £672 a month, £8064 a year. Thats not counting shopping trips and trips to family friends etc. Have they really though this through? WHERE IS THIS MONEY GOING TO COME FROM IN AN AVERAGE FAMILY? Even if you drop fuel and road tax (see my next point) this is one hell of a lot of money to be paying out. And that is just for one car, remember!
Current charges of fuel tax and road tax would be scrapped.
Haha!!! Of course they will say that, but when they bring in the trials, they cannot possibly do this - they cannot have petrol sold at a vastly cheaper price due to no fuel tax in the trial cities can they?! This would increase congestion, as people would be willing to drive in to fill their tanks up! It's bit like that old Irish joke, where the Irish were going to drive on right side of the road instead of the left - and the government introduced it in two stages - the first day for buses, the second for cars. Logistics, always think logistics.
A pilot scheme covering a region or large conurbation could be operating "within five years".
If all goes well a nationwide scheme could be rolled out within 10 years.
Personally, as a part time worker, and part time student, I will seriously have to consider whether to carry on working, or to go on the dole. I will probably end up with more money on the dole. (Like most people I cannot go to work off peak when driving is cheap, thats not an option. And I am sure that the schools won't let me drop my kids off at 10am, and pick them up at 7pm even if I could. Why can't they go on the bus, I hear you ask. Because where I live the price for my kids to get to school on a school bus would be £180 a month.) But that will be okay, as they will be getting the extra money from the road pricing to pay benefits for all of the people who can no longer afford to drive to work. Are you happy that the lower income section of the public will be priced off the road? I take it you are not one of them!
In my eyes, the government wastes enough of my money as it is. The decision has already been made, hasn't it? Or are you privy to other schemes that the government are considering? (Perhaps they could up the tax on fuel a few notches -much cheaper, and everyone pays, whether their car is registered or not) And perhaps you would be happy to pay by road pricing tax for me, if you like the idea so much?
And if you really think that this government is going to scrap fuel tax and car tax when the introduce road pricing, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.
And Darat, don't accuse me of listening to the bloke in the pub - (the editor of the Times certainly does not show his face in MY local!) when you take your spin from the BBC.
I appreciate that things need to change, and we need to be made more aware of how much we use the road when we don't have to. And how it would be much better for our health if we walked everywhere. Walking 15 miles (thats the motorway route, 27 miles not using motorway) to work every day is not an option for me though, is it? And I would like to see the money raised actually spent on improving the roads, rather than on the war, parties at Chequers, John Prescotts Jags etc......(and of course, they are all classed as EXPENSES, so we pay for them.....).
Let's improve roads, encourage car manafacturers to make more fuel efficent/less polluting cars, encourage peeple to drive smaller vehicles, make public transport (outside of London) much better, and cheaper. instead of pricing people off roads, out of jobs and onto income support. Let's think forwards, not backwards!
Shall we get back on track now, as we have hijacked this post with this discussion?
. I am expecting James Randi to contact me anyday now.....oh, hold on, I should be able to predict when he is going to get in touch....give me a mo to give my crystal ball a wipe clean...!
Or else I'll cry.
