One million sign petition against road-charging

[mc_squared]

One million sign petition against road-charging

Last updated at 12:29pm on 10th February 2007 Comments (28)


A motorists' pressure group this morning called on the Government to scrap plans for road-charging after an online petition opposing the project passed the 1 million-signature mark.
Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander insisted he would not allow the scale of the protest to deter him from pressing ahead with trials of charging schemes designed to cut congestion.
But the Association of British Drivers claimed that the petition represented only a small proportion of the motorists opposed to road-charging, and predicted the number of signatures could reach 3 million by the time it is closed on February 20.
The petition was started three months ago on a new section of the 10 Downing Street website, designed to allow citizens to bring their concerns to the attention of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
• Click here to sign the petition

It has attracted by far the largest response since the experimental e-petition service was opened last November - far outstripping the next-biggest petition currently on the site, to scrap inheritance tax, with around 40,000 signatures.
After passing the 1 million signature mark last night, the petition was still growing at a fast rate this morning, with a further 4,000 people adding their names by 11am.
Mr Alexander said that the scale of the response showed the need for more debate on proposals to cut congestion by charging motorists to use the busiest roads at peak times.
"The response to this petition makes the case for more debate, not less, on the issue of road pricing," he told The Times.
"It makes me more determined to debate the real issues about how we tackle growing congestion. I understand there are strong feelings on this issue but strong feelings alone are no substitute for considering how we tackle the challenge of congestion."
No decision has yet been made on whether to introduce a national congestion charging scheme, but the Department for Transport is planning regional trials.
Manchester and Birmingham are thought to be front-runners to host the trials, starting in around four to five years' time.
Sir Rod Eddington's recent report on the future of transport gave strong support to nationwide congestion charging, which the DfT calculates could result in tolls of up to £1.28 a mile on the busiest roads in peak periods.
Mr Alexander today gave no assurance that schemes would not result in an increase in the overall tax burden on drivers.
"I cannot anticipate future decisions that will have implications in many budgets ahead," he said. "But the suggestion that every driver would pay more is simply wrong."
Nigel Humphries of the ABD said: "When they look at this petition, Tony Blair and Douglas Alexander ought to reconsider their whole position, they ought to scrap the whole idea of road-pricing and actually go back to working out what transport people need.
"This petition has grown by 500,000 in the past week alone and a lot more people will sign it, because people are almost universally against road pricing. I think two and a half to three million signatures is possible."
Mr Humphries confirmed that the ABD has been running a campaign to encourage people to sign, but insisted that this accounted for only a small proportion of the petition's supporters.
"Peter Roberts, who started the petition, sent a few e-mails round, and they have been passed on from person to person. Every time there is any publicity for the petition, more people sign up, and most of it is spontaneous."
Edmund King of the RAC Foundation said that the Government would have to fundamentally rethink its strategy on congestion charging to have any chance of overcoming widespread opposition among motorists.
"They need to be setting up a scheme overseen by an independent body, they need to guarantee that there will be other tax reductions on fuel tax or vehicle excise duty and they need to guarantee that the road network will be improved," he said.
"Without those criteria, then road pricing will remain very unpopular. When we have surveyed motorists, nine out of ten don't trust the Government to deliver a fair system of road-pricing, whereas if you put an independent body in to oversee it, support levels do increase to around 60 per cent."
RAC Foundation research suggests that charging of some sort may be necessary on around 10 per cent of the road network in order to deal with the large increase in traffic levels expected over the next 20 years, said Mr King.
"I don't think anyone particularly wants road pricing, but we do not take a position of blanket opposition to it," he said.
"There are different ways of introducing it that might be more acceptable, but I'm afraid that so far the Government has put nothing on the table that's remotely acceptable.
"If they are serious about this they need to go back to the drawing board and find a way to promote the benefits."
A package which combines road-charging technology with satellite navigation services, real-time information on traffic conditions and parking places and preferential insurance rates might be more palatable to drivers, he suggested.

[busybeeburns]

nice of the gov to tell us about the petition on their own website

there go dem caravans again

[mc_squared]

Now MPs join road toll revolt

By Jonathan Oliver - More by this author » Last updated at 21:45pm on 10th February 2007 Comments

MPs are to revolt over plans for a spy-in-the-sky road tax as a petition calling for it to be scrapped reached one million signatures.
Former Transport Minister John Spellar is poised to lead the battle to block the controversial scheme to use satellite technology to charge motorists for every mile they drive.
• Add your name to the road tax petition here

• Mail On Sunday comment: How many people have to sign a petition before this Government takes notice?

Until now, Mr Spellar has been a New Labour loyalist. But he has now warned that road pricing would be a "tax" on hard-working Middle England voters, who need their cars to get to work.
A petition posted on the Downing Street website reached 1,038,657 signatures, making it one of the biggest displays of public protest in modern history.
But Ministers vowed to press ahead with their plan, insisting it would control congestion and cut greenhouse gases.
Work will begin this year on pilot local schemes to charge motorists up to 1.28p a mile during the rush hour. If it is successful, a national scheme will follow.
Mr Spellar said that since the early schemes would affect people living in big cities, they would effectively become a tax on urban life.
"Urban areas will pay more, because the congestion charging will be in urban areas, while rural areas benefit," he said.
"It is very unlikely that hard-working families will welcome being heavily taxed for going to work, especially as they already pay the highest fuel duty in Europe.
"And a road-charging scheme would divert huge sums of money while it was being set up to come into operation in ten or 15 years time.
"Motorists want to see the Government dealing with jams today not promises of jam tomorrow."
A Commons motion is expected to be put down next week by Tory MP Mike Penning.
The former fireman, who has dealt with dozens of traffic accidents, said road pricing would do nothing to improve safety and he believes at least 100 MPs are ready to back his motion.
But Roads Minister Stephen Ladyman insisted that the million people who signed the petition had been misled by the organisers.
He said claims that the electronic boxes which would be placed in cars would allow the Government to "spy" on motorists were wide of the mark.
He told The Mail on Sunday: "Once this petition has closed, what we are going to do is explain the real policies to the people.
"The viral emails sent round in support of this petition have got crazier and crazier. The information they have been sent is a mile away from what we are actually trying to do."
Last week it was revealed that the Blairite thinktank which has acted as the champion of road pricing received funding from T-Systems, a German company which stands to cash in if the nationwide scheme is given the go-ahead.
Meanwhile, it has become clear that Middle England is rising up again - this time with another massive petition, backed by this newspaper, over plans for a tax on the collection of household rubbish.
The TaxPayers' Alliance is posting a petition on the Downing Street website in an attempt to persuade Ministers to drop their "pay as you throw" proposals.
The campaigners are confident that many thousands of angry council tax payers will join together in a mass crusade, emulating the success of the anti-road pricing petition.
The new petition is likely to be accessible to the public within days.
It reads: "We petition the Prime Minister to prohibit the introduction of any charge, over and above that included in the council tax, on the collection and disposal of domestic rubbish."
In the section marked "more information", TaxPayers' Alliance campaigns director Blair Gibbs says: "Without consultation, councils have begun to introduce systems for weighing household rubbish using microchips implanted into domestic wheelie bins.
"Discussions within local government, and a policy proposal by the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, have advocated the nationwide application of this scheme.
"Schemes like this are already in operation on the Continent and if similar charges were introduced in Britain, the average family could end up paying up to £10 a month or £120 a year to have their rubbish collected, on top of their existing council tax bills.
"The high cost of the scheme will lead to increased levels of fly-tipping and backyard burning.
"Ordinary families will be hit hard by this new tax which cannot be justified given the average 80 per cent increase in council tax in the last ten years.
"Now this rubbish tax - while purporting to be designed to encourage recycling - is in fact part of a green agenda that politicians are using simply as a new way to raise money.
"There are no plans to offset the proposed rubbish tax with lower taxes elsewhere, nor is there any suggestion that households that meet or exceed recycling targets will be given a council tax discount. This is simply a tax on top of a tax."

[Black Rose]

I think caravans should be banned from being allowed out on the road between the hours of 6:00 and 23:00, if any are caught out then the caravan should be crushed.

Then congestion won't exist.

[Texasluvsjonny]

LOL @ the Pompey supporter bitching about caravans.

[Black Rose]

Caravans are evil

[mc_squared]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Texasluvsjonny;1984603
LOL @ the Pompey supporter bitching about caravans.

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Well Fratton Park is a bit like a big permanently parked caravan!!

[Texasluvsjonny]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mc_squared;1984833
Well Fratton Park is a bit like a big permanently parked caravan!!

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At least a caravan puts a cover over your head, where as Fratton .....oh but wait, the Skates are gonna build a 60,000 seater so they can be the bestest club ever and win Champions League.