TRANSPORT

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Britain's roads are in a state of collapse after years of underspending. Many highways are little more than a patchwork of potholes and dodgy temporary repairs. Rural lanes are in an “appalling” condition, with surfaces in the worst shape for 25 years. And street lighting is also in a bad state, with no sign of things improving. Three out of four local councils are failing to keep roads in good condition, the Commons transport committee found. And millions of pounds in taxpayers’ cash is being paid out every year to pedestrians hurt on dodgy pavements.

The committee said things are now so bad that a third of all highways spending is on temporary repairs. And it warned that the backlog of work is so long the Government has no chance of meeting its target to improve roads by 2010. Shadow Transport Secretary Tim Collins said the report highlighted the “real scandal behind the neglect and exploitation of motorists”. He added, “While taxes paid by drivers have soared by £10billion since Labour came to power, the state of our roads gets steadily worse. Not only do we have to endure endless traffic jams, but it is clear that existing roads are little more than a collection of potholes.”

Motorists paid a record £42billion tax bill in 2002. The Chancellor Gordon Brown raked in an all-time high because a record 2.5million cars left showrooms. This boosted government coffers by more than £5.5billion in VAT. Revenue from rising fuel prices also beat the £22.6billion figure for 2001. The Treasury will also amass billions in car, van and lorry tax. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said the motoring tax bill had risen by £10billion in five years.

Chief executive Christopher Macgowan said, “Cars seem to be the only show in town until alternative transport schemes come on stream. We have got to keep this country moving not clobber the motorist.” Mr Brown’s bill for motorists accounts for a ninth of his total tax take of £379.6billion in the financial year. Tory Treasury spokesman Stephen O'Brien said, “Labour is taxing drivers to record levels. But public transport is in a worsening mess.”

Anti-car policies include:

l Charging for access to city centres, increased during peak hours.

l Motorway tolls.

l Digital speed cameras that threaten to turn the entire motorway and trunk road network into one giant speed trap.

l Restricting access to certain motorways at peak times.

l A £400+ a year tax on parking spaces at work.

l Forcing residents to pay to park outside their own homes.

l Forcing out-of-town shopping centres to charge for car-parking.

l Large tax rises for company car users.

l Increasing the already extortionate petrol tax each year by 5% more than inflation.

l Deliberately creating congestion by the imposition of pointless bus lanes.

A scheme to computerise the MoT system is running three years late and nearly £10 million over budget. The delays emerged as the Government announced plans to crack down on uninsured motorists, relying on its own database and one provided by the Association of British Insurers. The MoT computerisation scheme, which was to be implemented by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), represented the biggest change in the MoT system since it was introduced more than 40 years ago.

It was designed to make tests more reliable and increase confidence in the second-hand car market, with purchasers able to access reliable information on the vehicle they were planning to buy. Garages carry out 18 million MoT tests a year. The first computerised MoT station was supposed to go online in March 2002 but it did so in March 2006. Motoring organisations voiced doubts, given the chaos surrounding the VOSA programme, as to whether the Government would be able to enforce its crackdown on uninsured motorists.

A VOSA spokesman said that the delays had been caused by the need to ensure that the system was accurate and "robust". Repeated computer crashes have thrown the MoT system into disarray, making it impossible for some drivers to tax their cars. The glitches have left many of the country's 19,500 testing stations unable to work, often with no warning. They are having to issue paper MoT certificates then register the details of the car on the database operated by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (Vosa) over the following five days.

Jim Punter, the chairman of the MoT trade forum, said that both motorists and garages were losing out. Post offices are supposed to check the MoT database before issuing a tax disc. Although they are allowed to tax a car when presented with a paper certificate, some are refusing to do so. Motorists whose cars are not registered on the database are at risk of being ordered to present their documents at a police station if stopped by an officer.

The computerisation of the MoT database was intended to bring that to an end. Patrol cars using automatic number plate recognition cameras were meant to be able to find out instantly if a car was taxed and had a valid certificate. The new technology uses a slow dial-up connection, rather than broadband and dot matrix printers, technology that is regarded as 10 years out of date. (Source: Daily Telegraph, May/06)

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