Labour to scrap national road pricing plans ...
15 October 2007, 02:02 PM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Labour to scrap national road pricing plans ...
From: Labour to scrap national road pricing plans - Telegraph
"Ministers are to perform a U-turn by shelving plans for a national road pricing scheme that would have cost motorists up to £1.30 a mile" ...
Hmmmm. Seems they have listened to the majority view here but who believes they won't try to get it via the stealth route???
Dave
PS: becoming more and more cynical of gov. statements/spin/lies by the day ... j
"Ministers are to perform a U-turn by shelving plans for a national road pricing scheme that would have cost motorists up to £1.30 a mile" ...
Hmmmm. Seems they have listened to the majority view here but who believes they won't try to get it via the stealth route???
Dave
PS: becoming more and more cynical of gov. statements/spin/lies by the day ... j
15 October 2007, 02:35 PM
#5
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Swilling coffee at my lab bench
Posts: 9,096
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Tories seized on the decision as a sign that the Government had a lack of vision.
"This [road pricing] was their flagship policy and this is a dramatic U-turn," said Theresa Villiers, the party's transport spokesman.
"It shows a complete lack of direction. We have been urging them to scrap national road pricing for the last two years."
"This [road pricing] was their flagship policy and this is a dramatic U-turn," said Theresa Villiers, the party's transport spokesman.
"It shows a complete lack of direction. We have been urging them to scrap national road pricing for the last two years."
The article also says "national road pricing had fallen down the list of priorities – "it has been back burnered."" - which isn't the same thing at all as saying it's been abandoned because the idea was massively unpopular, and implementing it would therefore be undemocratic.
I wonder whether today's announcement has anything to do with the recent funding issues surrounding the Galileo satellite positioning system. National Governments can only see it as a worthwhile investment if they can use it to help raise taxes - but, of course, taxpayers themselves get a double whammy: paying for the system upfront, and then being taxed for journeys tracked by it. With an announcement along the lines of "we won't use it to tax you - yet", maybe the Govt is simply trying to make investing in the infrastructure more attractive.
Nevertheless, any delay in such a system is a welcome development. Let's hope that any plans for ISA (Intelligent Speed Adaptation - basically GPS enforced speed limiting) - which would no doubt rely on the same satellite network and in-car 'black box', will be put back or shelved too.
15 October 2007, 02:40 PM
#6
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: S.E London
Posts: 13,654
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Trending Topics
15 October 2007, 03:23 PM
#9
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: A big town with sh1t shops: Northampton
Posts: 21,366
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
15 October 2007, 03:55 PM
#10
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: cornwall
Posts: 382
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
15 October 2007, 05:24 PM
#11
Of course not - they are in favour as well. They were hoping that Labour would bring it in, lose the election, and leave the Tories to reap the money but be able to heap the abuse on labour.
But I suspect the real reason for abandoning the scheme is financial - the reason the Tories abandoned similar plans (based on overhead gantries) back in the early nineties.
M
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post