MP brands road plan a shambles

Government moves towards a national road pricing network have been branded a shambles by a Shropshire MP.

Owen Paterson accused ministers of back-tracking on their proposals - which were endorsed by Sir Rod Eddington last year - and again earlier this week.

The shadow transport minister confronted Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander on the issue in the Commons on Tuesday, citing Sir Eddington's warnings that if the scheme were not to go ahead, there would be a substantial increase in inter-urban road building.

Mr Alexander insisted the right way forward was to first have local pilots - such as the one planned for Shrewsbury - developing solutions to the congestion challenges communities faced.

"On the basis of the facts that emerge from those local congestion charging experiences, we will be able to as a country, to make a judgment on the merits of a national system of road pricing,' he said.

But Mr Paterson was unconvinced. "I was quite struck by the minister's response," the Tory MP said afterwards.

"It is the most uncommitted to the point of being negative comment that the Government has made on road pricing to date.

"Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman said the scheme was inevitable - and now they are tentatively looking at a few regional schemes which are not all certain to come off - and there is no commitment at all to the Eddington target of 2015.

"He said we would have to have a very comprehensive road pricing scheme by then, otherwise we would have major inter-urban road investment.

"So what are they going to do? It's an absolute mess," he added.

In a report commissioned by Chancellor Gordon Brown, Sir Rod said a pay-as-you-drive scheme could cut congestion by half.

By Sunita Patel