Response to road petition
Tuesday 17th April 2007, 7:18PM BST.
A Shropshire man’s petition against road pricing, which attracted 1.8 million signatures, has highlighted public concern over the issue, transport secretary Douglas Alexander said today.
Peter Roberts, an account manager from Lawley Bank in Telford, set up the online petition last year and ended up in a storm of worldwide publicity.
The transport secretary today insisted a national road pricing scheme was “still on the table”.
He said the debate should be driven forward not simply by the speeches of politicians but by the experience of drivers.
A measured approach was needed and any national road pricing system “lies years away”, he said.
His comments came in a question and answer session after his address to the British Chambers of Commerce annual conference in London.
Mr Alexander said: “The responsible course is not to take options off the table.”
He said the petition opposing road pricing which had been posted on the 10 Downing Street website and which had attracted 1.8 million signatures had shown that people were concerned by road pricing.
Mr Alexander added the planned local authorities’ road pricing pilot schemes were expected to take place over the next four to five years.
He said he wanted the local schemes to be “a fair deal for motorists”.
But Mr Roberts has rubbished his comments, saying the Government should listen to what people want.
He said: “It does not matter how many years away it is, there has been a significant statement saying we do not want it. It is not something people want, so why keep it on the table?
“It is about time they listened to the voice of the people.”
In his speech to the conference Mr Alexander said that if the 20th century challenge was to build a transport network that helped overcome the barriers of distance and time, the 21st century challenge was to address rising congestion and emissions.
By Andy Walker
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I’m proud to be one of the 1.8 million to have voted against…
My reasons are simple. Until we have a actual working transport network which is fast and reliable outside of London… then they should leave motorists alone.
Most people drive as it’s cheaper and more reliable to do so…
Train, Plane, Bus, and taxi strikes also cause absolute chaos… Suddenly i prefer my car!
Just an example, there is a bus ever hour where i live… not exactly practical!!! also it annoys me when people say that you should move closer to your work place…my question is where are all these vacant houses they are talking about???
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the government is arrogant and will never listen to joe public so why not vote them out over this issue?.
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Peter Robers should be commended for leading the charge against the proposed road charges.
It is outrageous that the Government is clearly pushing ahead with road pricing schemes despite a major public outcry.
How can it ignore the fact that a million signatures were collected as a petition against the draft and call itself a democracy?
Whilst it might take 10 years until we see widespread national charging, it could start at a local level within five years – surely UK drivers are already being taxed enough for using roads?
This is a clear example of the UK government introducing a national transport pricing policy by stealth.
Instead of introducing charges, the government should invest in the transport network, as it promised to when it was elected 10 years ago.
All drivers will suffer as a result of these plans but none more so than drivers of commercial vehicles, who do not have a choice over where and when they drive.
No commercial vehicle would make a non-essential journey, but how will they be compensated for the further taxation for making essential journeys?
Where and how will the capital raised from these local projects be spent and what measures will be put in place to ensure transparency in their accounting procedures?
How will the collection of these taxes be implemented across the vast numbers of foreign vehicles operating around this country? Do they propose that these taxes be collect by manned toll booths on the entry and exit of the affected routes?
All these questions remained unanswered and yet these plans push ahead. It is totally unacceptable.
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