Nationwide road tolls 'outlined'

[grober]

This sounds bad! Another stealth tax on the motorist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5249538.stm

 

[scumbag]

i dont think its stealth. its open extortion. we already pay the road fund licence and now they expect us to pay more for road usage. 3/4 of the road fund licence does not go back into roads, that bit that does finds the highways agency which is fair enough. but what happens to the tax collected on petrol above the VAT amount?

we pay new car tax on new cars over and above VAT. you pay more on petrol over and above VAT and now you have to pay more to use the roads over and above road fund licene, which is in itself a fund for roads!!!!!!

either have toll roads and do away with the RFL. or send the money from these revenue generators to road usage! but lets not make us pay both and send the money off to some other department.

its just another namby pamby way of hitting the motorist for money to pay for all these welfare and social items this government want us to pay for.

 

[219]

It is a VOTE LOSER .

Any government which dares to try to bring in such a measure can be voted out of office at the next election.

 

[mb240]

They might be voted out of office, but the law will stay on.

Maybe when a political party loses an election, there should be a big review of all the laws they passed, and whether to keep them or not with the new government.

Either way it's very unfriendly to motorists in UK. Interesting that the article says that it proposed "reliability" as a plus point of such a toll system. Reliability of what exactly? Roads?

 

[Satch]

It is long established "Policy" that the only way possible forward is Road Pricing.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/divisionhomepage/032120.hcsp

This is not just a UK thing it is Euro Policy creep as well. There is already legislation in place to charge heavy vehicles

I do not remember being asked but a lot of people with vested interests were. A huge industry has been springing up and best of all in the EU each year about Eur. 330Bn gets raised in various forms of tax on cars & heavy vehicles but only Eur. 100Bn get spent on transport. Rest gets sucked in to general tax pool.

If you think this something for the future, think again:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_localtrans/documents/page/dft_localtrans_503865.pdf

 

[kensalriser]

Well I don't know about anyone else but I kind of like having schools and hospitals. Although I'm not so keen on all the money that's gone towards the Iraq war. The thing is, motoring's been hit by all these taxes but people keep on buying more bigger cars and using them more often, so it's really a no brainer for the government - whatever its colour.

As for haulage, rail is woefully underused and any measure that gets freight off the roads and on to rail is a good thing. Food mileage needs a good look too, the amount of miles simple stuff like bread travels is ludicrous and unsustainable.

And of course, if the tax isn't in one place it'll be somewhere else.

 

[Rob77]

I think we all like having schools and hospitals but I object to having to foot the bill for the increasing burden of public employees, not to mention Scottish "parliaments", spin doctors, media consultants and the likes of John Prescott.

Also, yes, it would be nice to see the rail service used more and better but now that its in "private" hands, are we expected to throw public money at it because it can't organise itself the way our politicians would want it to?

Probably.

 

[portzy]

Have we not always had, in living memory at least, schools - hospitals - railways etc?. Its been funded in the past in an ok fashion at least but, are we not becoming a country where there is an increasing number of "net takers" instead of "net givers" so, the money to pay for extra benefits and wars with dubious justification must come from somwhere. I guess it does but I dont agree.

I cannot understand taxing something to make it less popular because it just does not work. If the goverment was honest? its nothing to do with the environment, if it was it would encourage smaller cars etc by extending the tax free bands to include a greater range of engine sizes but, as usual, it far too blinkered and applies its narrow mindedness in the form of increased taxation. Too much stick and not enough carrot I think.

Why we put up with it amazes me.

Portzy.

 

[saorbust]

I wouldn't object to road tolls similar to the M6 toll road, but I do object to the concept of pricing by mile. This is already done via tax on fuel effectively.

Either way it has to be done, the question is how. And I think it should be done very carefully to avoid damaging the economy.

 

[grober]

Big Brother is watching!

If all cars are to fitted with a transponder to monitor where and when your vehicle is on the road it does open a wealth of new surveilance possibilities. we wont need speed cameras for a start!

 

[WLeg]

Surley, it would be cheaper and fairer to simply remove road tax, and add a bit to the fuel tax, thus not only ensuring that the tax is fair and equal, but also taxing all those french, etc drivers who use our roads for free !!!!

 

[219]

The tax money certainly isn't getting spent on schools , and not on hospitals in the way most people would wish .

Many schools are falling apart due to lack of building maintenance and there are widespread shortages of teaching materials , I know - I was a school technician for a number of years : one year the allocation of funds I was given to run my department was .... £50.00 ! I had to be careful not to spend it all in the one shop .

Hospitals these days seem to have so many highly paid 'managers' and not so many doctors or (underpaid) nurses . Those doctors they do have have to work very long hours under great pressure . Admittedly this is only what I glean from the media but I have no reason to disbelieve it in this instance .

 

[BonzoDog]

Taxes have to come from somewhere, the roads are overcrowded in UK, so road tolls seem like one approach. The French peage are a dream as the fact of having to pay discourages some users and the penny wise Dutch caravaners.
The downside is that road charging has been introduced for trucks in Germany, based on truck recognition and satellite technology. It now works after several years delay. the result has been to push some traffic back onto ordinary roads. It seems inevitable that the same will be introduced for cars at some time as the technology is there and waiting.
Switzerland aims to push more and more goods traffic onto the railways, especially trans Switzerland traffic.
But back in the UK it seems that there is no strategic infrastructure plan and even if there were one, the long term political will to invest in such a structure has always been lacking. The cry is usually overcrowding but there is probably no more overcrwded area in Europe than the German Ruhr or maybe parts of Holland. I find it analagous to Italy, another country that is painfully backward in terms of infrastructure and not just in roads.

 

[Satch]

Well I don't know about anyone else but I kind of like having schools and hospitals. Although I'm not so keen on all the money that's gone towards the Iraq war. QUOTE]

Schools and hospitals we have and indeed hospitals that are now being forced to set 4 month minimum waiting times even if a Consultant could see you this afternoon because of number games being played. Labour Governments never understand that throwing money at problems is never the way to sort things out, it simply tends to mask inefficiency and hide Government stupidity.

I particularly like this:

"They do not know how to engage the various gears of Government and make it work for them. So they just press ever harder on the accelerator, make a lot of noise & smoke, use huge amounts of fuel but get nowhere. It is because most of them are academics and lawyers, none of them have ever done anything worth a damn in the real world and they all mistake talk and initiatives for action.

On the whole Ministers and their tame policy advisers simply refuse to listen to people who do understand the real world impact and point out deficiencies in their plans because that is simply not what they want to hear. One of the more common expressions you will hear from senior Civil Servants tends to be "It is the wish of Ministers." which translates as "Yes we know this is absolute nonsense and bound to fail at vast expense but there is not much we can do about it."

So stupid mistakes are made, vast sums wasted and errors are usually masked by even greater sums being spent. So the Taxation burden in the UK can do nothing but increase."

So where do people go when priced off the roads then?

 

[jeremytaylor]

The thing that makes me 'laugh' is that they say road pricing is intended to make us use public transport. And yet the train companies want to put up fares to deter us from using them, because they are overcrowded.

Er ...

It's just another stealth tax, which we will fall for, because we all love our cars, and because public transport is for the most part, far worse and more expensive.

 

[Rose Chap]

Why does the government think toll roads will 'reduce congestion'?

Do they think we drive up and down motorways in the morning and evenings for fun?

Idiotic thinking of this ilk and policy decisions based on the need to subsidise pointless exercises like Welsh Assemblies and hugely expensive parliament buildings in Scotland will result in the UK becoming even more uncompetitive.

I find it all infuriating.

 

[saorbust]

If all cars are to fitted with a transponder to monitor where and when your vehicle is on the road it does open a wealth of new surveilance possibilities. we wont need speed cameras for a start!

This is already possible due to the large number of cameras already on the highways.

 

[Rob77]

Oh, and on the subject of our being encouraged to use trains, what is the idea behind charging us to use the railway station car park?

How is anyone supposed to get there? Bus, taxi? Maybe everyone should all just give up work now and let the state support us?

 

[x332race]

IF the Goverment really wanted to reduce congestion they would put money into improving public transport.

Even Ken Livinstone's Congestion Charge in central London is not really a congestion charge as he allows "environmentally friendly" cars to enter the area free of charge!

 

[Shude]

IF the Goverment really wanted to reduce congestion they would put money into improving public transport.

Even Ken Livinstone's Congestion Charge in central London is not really a congestion charge as he allows "environmentally friendly" cars to enter the area free of charge!

You can imagine what would happen if we all dumped our "regular" cars and bought "alternatives" instead, the congestion charge would instantly be for all vehicles again.