An online petition launched by a Shropshire man campaigning against road pricing has already managed to attract more than half a million signatures.

Peter Roberts, of Telford, set up the petition on the Downing Street website just over two months ago. And this week the 500,000th signature was added to the list supporting the account manager’s campaign.

Mr Roberts today said the figure the petition had reached was “impressive” considering all the other petitions on the website

He had only set a target of 100,000 names for the petition, but more are being added each day.Mr Roberts said: “Last week the biggest number of signatures we had was 60,000 in a day. At the moment it’s doing 20,000 to 30,000 a day.”

He is against the Government’s policy to push ahead with pay-as-you-go pricing, which includes possible trials in Shrewsbury and the Black Country.

The petition states: “We, the undersigned, petition the Prime Minister to scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy.”

Mr Roberts is now aiming for 750,000 signatures before the petition ends on February 20.

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman has said the petition would “inform the policy debate”, but was no substitute for action to reduce traffic congestion.

He said the Government was working with 10 areas, which include the Black Country/Birmingham and Shrewsbury, to produce pilot road pricing schemes by next July.

Mr Roberts has said transport chiefs should look at doing something which people are not so against.

Insurance company Swiftcover.com, which retails entirely through the internet, has also lent its support to the cause.

It claims the road pricing policy would force drivers to spend up to £200 for a tracking device and an average of £89 each month in road tolls.

People can see the petition at petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax

By Lisa Rowley