Downing Street Says » Road Pricing

Asked what the Prime Minister would be saying in his reply to the 1,605,764 who had signed the road pricing petition, the PMOS replied that at the risk of stating the obvious, the journalist would have to wait until Wednesday. Pushed again for an answer, the PMOS replied that first and foremost, the Prime Minister welcomed the debate. The Prime Minster recognised that there were strong opinions on this issue, and that there were strong opinions even before the e-petition. All the e-petition did was give people the opportunity to express those strong opinions. Equally however, the Prime Minister believed that congestion was an issue that we could not do nothing about, we had to do something. That was why the Government was proposing the ten pilot schemes, to learn from the experience about what was possible and what was not possible. He also believed that whilst people felt strongly about this issue, if they rejected the way in which the Government was going, then the onus was on them to come up with positive alternatives. Just burying our heads in the sand and doing nothing about the problem was not an option.

Asked whether the Prime Minister thought the London congestion charge scheme was working well, the PMOS replied that the Prime Minister had gone on the record as saying that he believed the way in which the London congestion charge was introduced was courageous, and did show that congestion could be tackled.

Asked if the Government was still taking the view that the "do nothing" option was not an option, the PMOS replied that doing nothing was certainly not an option. All the research and surveys showed that doing nothing would lead to gridlock, and people were even more strongly against gridlock. The problem was that people were then faced with hard choices, but we had to make those hard choices if we were to resolve this issue. The pilot schemes would allow us to test whether certain solutions, including road pricing, would work. What we were not proposing was to go in one step to a national road pricing scheme.

Put to him that there was a view in the Department of Transport that the petition had killed off the idea of a satellite tracking system, the PMOS replied that it was too early to get into discussing particular options, because the pilot schemes were precisely designed to test options and then to go forward on the basis of that experience.

9 Comments »

Enough is enough ! We pay road tax, Insurance, MOT and INCREDIBLY high fuel costs, roads were built to enable, NOT EARN money for a greedy government !
Comment by L Chandler — 20 Feb 2007 on 1:10 pm | Link
The only people who support this issue are townies,any person living in the country can not and WILL NOT support it.Only when you are able to step out your door and be able to get public transport of some sort can you possibly agree to such a stupid and selfish arrangement. I wonder how many of the people in favour of such a stupid idea actually have a family or live in the countryside (at least 10 mls. from their nearest shop,never mind town) and how about the elderly who cant hang around in the cold and wet for evermore ,hoping a bus will appear? Use your brains and cut down on all the unneccessary flights around the world, mostly for pleasure by the way, something the elderly can not afford.
Comment by Donald Dochard — 20 Feb 2007 on 1:42 pm | Link
"Enough is enough ! We pay road tax, Insurance, MOT and INCREDIBLY high fuel costs, roads were built to enable, NOT EARN money for a greedy government !
Posted by L Chandler on 20 Feb 2007 13:10"

I beg to differ! The only reason you are here is to earn money for a greedy government. It’s time people started to realise this, because this is the only way people will change their voting habits, and start to push for real political reform. Sadly…
Comment by SmokeNMirrors — 20 Feb 2007 on 1:46 pm | Link
Incidentally, there is no such thing as "a pilot scheme". Once a "pilot scheme" is in place, that’s it, in place, forever, and no amount of "experience" will ever shake that. Look at "congestion charging" – remember that started off as a "pilot scheme". "pilot schemes" are simply a way to bring into practice a policy under the radar without people noticing it’s happening.
Comment by SmokeNMirrors — 20 Feb 2007 on 1:51 pm | Link
Totally against Road Charging.

Invest more money in Publuic Transport to make it much more affordable.
Comment by J. Stephenson — 20 Feb 2007 on 7:13 pm | Link
Totally against Road Charging.

Invest more money in Publuic Transport to make it much more affordable.
Comment by J. Stephenson — 20 Feb 2007 on 7:14 pm | Link
Why in this country do we pay more and more tax than another ?? every thing we do we get tax on, the doors are open and any one is comeing in and enjoying life on our behalf yet we pay tax and now they what us to pay to drive ? we already do – Road tax – Fuel tax – we dont need any more tax,s do we, if anything we need a big tax refund for the way the UK has been run over the last 10 years or so —

NOT EARN money for a greedy government, who do nothing for its own and every thing for the out siders comeing in …….
Comment by steve cooper — 20 Feb 2007 on 11:36 pm | Link
NO WAY UNLESS CAR TAX IS REMOVED AND TAX ON FUEL REMOVED BUT ALL CARS OVER 10 YEARS OLD REMOVED FROM THE ROAD.
Comment by len north — 21 Feb 2007 on 9:48 pm | Link
This road tax hike will doabsolutely nothing to reduce the so called green house effect. People will still pay the money to tax their vehicles.This will not lead to a reduction of these vehicles. This is pompous victimisation and snobishness from a government who are simply playing politics and pampering to the flavour of the month and hugging the greenies.
Comment by S Houlgate — 5 Apr 2007 on 6:31 pm | Link

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» Monday, February 19, 2007

Road Pricing

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