Drivers don’t trust congestion tax vow

Apr 28 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

MOTORISTS across the region would oppose road pricing because they do not trust the Government to treat them fairly, the AA has revealed.

A poll by the motoring group showed 69% of its members in the North East would not vote in favour of any local road pricing scheme if a referendum were held.

The poll comes a month after five Tyne and Wear councils who were investigating congestion-busting methods ruled out road pricing for at least five years.

In February The Journal revealed how officers at Newcastle Council, the lead authority on the traffic scheme, had put together proposals for congestion charging zones around the North East’s biggest cities.

In the run-up to this week’s local elections officers announced they were dropping the “unsuitable” plans.

Yesterday the AA said that many of its members recognised the benefits of introducing some charges but did not trust the Government to keep its word about offering reductions in fuel duty or road tax if road pricing was introduced.

Newcastle City Council leader John Shipley last night told The Journal that as far as he was concerned, road pricing was a “dead issue”.

“What the Government has to do is to make it clear exactly what public transport investment we would get as a result of a national scheme, and they have not even come close to that yet.

“And on top of that they need to say how road pricing would help with our transport needs, such as the issues on the Western bypass and the need to dual the A1.”

Edmund King, AA president said he could see why motorists did not trust the Government.

“Road pricing is unnecessary on most roads, unpopular and difficult to implement socially, politically, financially and practically.”

A DfT spokesman said: “We recognise that people have very real concerns about a national road pricing scheme – about personal privacy, about how fair a scheme might be, and what it might mean for them as individuals.

“As Ruth Kelly has said, our focus must be on what we can do to tackle congestion now. That’s why we’re exploring the idea of opening more hard shoulders to traffic – and possibly charging for the new capacity this creates – as well as working with towns and cities to help them develop local road pricing schemes.”