Government 'preparing to scrap national road pricing' - newspaper report
Tue 16 October 2007
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The Daily Telegraph has reported that the Government is preparing to put proposals for a national road pricing scheme on the back-burner. The report says that the Government will leave local authorities to decide whether to introduce schemes into their own localities. So far, only Greater Manchester has submitted a formal application to run a road pricing scheme.
Earlier this year, there were 1.8m signatures to an on-line petition opposing the introduction of national charges.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were quick to react to the report. The Conservatives Shadow Transport Secretary, Theresa Villiers, welcomed the news but asked how much money had been wasted on the project. She also accused the Government of "running out of ideas and lacking the vision to tackle the country's worsening transport headaches".
For the Liberal Democrats, Susan Kramer accused the Government of 'losing its nerve' on the issue.
She said: "Gordon Brown claims to care about the environment, but time and time again he has ducked the tough decisions needed to tackle climate change. This Government has lost its nerve on road pricing. Ministers have consistently failed to make the case for it to the public...Road user pricing is the most logical way to tackle both congestion and climate change."
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