ROAD TOLLS 2

A report by the government has recommended tolls of up to £1.40 a mile on road users in order to cut congestion. 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.

Their movements will be tracked by satellite receiver chips fitted to their cars and they will be charged accordingly. It will cost £3billion to fit the satellite receiver technology to the country's 30million cars but it could raise more than £10billion a year for the Treasury. The scheme could be introduced within 10 to 15 years.

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 said, "The proposal is not to increase the tax burden on road users in the UK, but to simply change the way we pay. The £1.40 figure would apply to 0.5% of all the roads in Britain. A great number of road users would pay less."

Roger King, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said, "The road haulage industry is consulting with Government on the lorry road-user charge. The question is will this make any difference to congestion? The answer is no, it won't. Supermarkets will still want their shelves filled. Transport still has to get through."

He added, "So it's going to end up an additional tax. It's not going to have any impact on congestion, because lorries won't park up waiting for a cheaper time, and the same applies to motorists. The motorists will go on paying, come what may. This will be another form of tax increase on motoring."

But Prof Begg said that congestion could not be reduced simply by road-building, without an effort to encourage drivers to change their patterns of road use. "If you go down the road-building approach, you are going to have to build five times the amount of roads the Government are planning," he warned. See also: Car Spies

An emergency vehicle was delayed from responding to a 999 call when its paramedic driver was told to pay for using the M6 Toll motorway. The road's operators say the car was not "clearly liveried" and no warning was given. Bob Lee, for the ambulance service, said the driver, wearing a paramedic uniform, was only allowed through the toll after turning on the car's blue lights. He was driving the Vauxhall estate from Cannock to Lichfield to provide emergency cover, when he was stopped at the exit of the M6 Toll and the booth operator refused to raise the barrier.

The white emergency response vehicle was marked with green chequered stripes with a blue light bar on top and blue lights on the grill. It was displaying a large "star of life" emblem on its bonnet and had the ambulance service's crown badge on the two front doors. Mr Lee said all the above had been agreed with the operator of the M6 Toll, Midland Expressway Limited, as being sufficient for recognition as an ambulance vehicle. He said the paramedic called his control centre and a senior officer telephoned the toll booth operator to explain the situation.

Mr Lee said while this was happening, the paramedic received the emergency call, but he still had to wait with his blue lights flashing before he was allowed to exit. "It was clearly marked, clearly an ambulance vehicle, clearly going on an emergency call and yet still despite all the assurances from the toll operator this vehicle was delayed," Mr Lee said. He added, "Now that potentially puts lives at risk and we're at a loss what to do. This is not the first time this has happened and enough is enough."

Tom Fanning managing director of the operators of the M6 Toll, Midland Expressway Limited, denied the vehicle was a clearly marked ambulance. "Ambulances that are not clearly liveried are allowed through providing the agreed procedures are followed, in that the ambulance service control room telephones ahead to give us advance warning so that we can give them free and unhindered access," he said. "No advance notice was given, however, after a brief discussion the vehicle, a Vauxhall Vectra estate, was given free passage."

The M6 toll route north of Birmingham has dramatically increased the number of vehicles on the very motorway it was designed to unclog, confirming fears that building more roads simply creates more traffic. Since the toll road opened in December 2003, junctions to the south have seen weekday traffic rise by almost 10,000 extra cars and lorries. Junctions to the north show 5,000 more vehicles a day. While traffic flows freely on the toll stretch, 38,000 extra vehicles now use both this and the free M6 each day, a rise of more than a quarter on pre-toll days, parliamentary figures show.

Environmentalists will use the figures to show building roads encourages car use. The privately-funded toll road, which links junction 4 of the M6 at Coleshill, Warwickshire, with junction 11 near Cannock, is a precursor of the government's national road pricing strategy. The 27-mile stretch is designed to reduce jams by offering those who pay the £3 charge a route which, the operators claim, can shave 45 minutes off journey times.

The government is examining whether to extend the toll road by building a 50-mile 'expressway' between Birmingham and Manchester alongside the M6. Ultimately, a network of toll roads could be built alongside congested arteries. A spokesman said the figures, obtained in a parliamentary answer, could be 'distorted' by recent heavy roadworks. Tom Fanning, chief of Midland Expression Ltd which operates the toll road, said, "It is a success. In its first year of operation 17 million vehicles have chosen to use the road as an alternative to the M6." (Source: The Observer)

Visitors to the Peak District National Park may soon be forced to pay a congestion charge to drive on its roads. Anne Ashe, who is lead member for transport for the Peak District National Park, said, "National parks are provided because of their special qualities, and one of those qualities is solitude, tranquillity, that sort of thing. Visitors pouring in by car don't do anything to contribute to that. In fact they detract from it."

She added, "Damage congestion does usually applies to urban areas, but if you're talking about a protected landscape, a national park, maybe we need to reconsider what we mean by congestion." As a result, the national park authority is now pushing for an 'environmental levy', a charge which would probably apply to all cars in the park and possibly a wider area. (Source: The Observer)

Ministers are set to scrap proposals to introduce nationwide road tolls which would see drivers billed up to £1.50 a mile. However, the Department for Tranport said it was "rubbish" to suggest the government had ever planned a national road pricing scheme, insisting it had only put in place plans for local tolls. Drivers would have been forced to pay several hundred pounds to install a black box in their cars so they could be monitored by electronic tracking via satellite or roadside beacons.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said, "There is no change in policy. We have been extremely clear that we are focusing on local solutions to local congestion problems." A draft Parliamentary bill to give councils powers to set up pay-as-you-drive schemes revealed they must be "inter-operable" with projects in other towns. (Source: Daily Mail, Oct/07)

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