Mar 05 2007
Rob a motorist goes local
Labour’s efforts to tax motorists for using the roads we have already paid for is now going to be implemented locally. The government understands just how unpopular a national scheme currently is, despite all the best efforts to spin away the 1.8 million names on the Downing Street petition, so it’s back to Plan B. Livingstone got away with a Congestion Charge scheme - by introducing it into Conservative controlled Boroughs where he wasn’t expecting many votes and by leaving toll free routes through the area. The government hopes there are other borough Livingstones around the country who can?? implement similar schemes for whole towns or cities. They may find that if you try to do one city wide with no way through, the opposition becomes too great.
My neighbouring town, Reading, is thinking about such a development. Reading Council have already told any of us who used to go into shop?? by car that they do not want us - they have littered the roads with new signs, one way systems, chicanes, and road blocks. They have developed a parking system that is so complex you need a PHD in parking to work out where and when you are allowed to park legally. Now under pressure from the government - and with the promise of more of our money if they put another tax on us - they are considering making their inner ring road one way only and charging us for the priviliege of going round in circles.
Sensible towns and cities try to make themselves welcome to shoppers and tourists. They accept that if you are going in to buy household goods in the sales it is not practical to take the things back on the bus or train. They provide car parks close?? to the shops so the heavy bags do not have to be carried too far.
??If Reading goes ahead with block and charge, it may well discover it has bitten off more than it can chew politcally. My party looks forward to the day they do it from a narrow party point of view, but as someone who would like the main town in Berkshire to be a good commercial centre I would urge them to think again.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
How are out of town visitors/delivery companies etc. going to pay for these local congestion charges? The Transport for London administration department is huge, it takes a charge for every vehicle you register up front then a charge per entry, will we have to pay this registration fee for every local project in the Country or all carry lots of extra cash and waste time trying to find pay boxes? An unco-ordinated approach to taxation in this way will freeze enterprise whether you want to believe that or not. Why can’t the politicans just admit they’ve overspent, made promises they can’t keep, offered financial rewards to people that now can’t be afforded, we need some honesty and the brakes applying gently over time. It’s like sitting on a bus with an out of control driver and no seat belt, you know if we go around a corner too sharply we’re over on the side or eventually we’ll end up through the front windscreen.
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All of the recent changes to the roads in and around Reading mean that to anyone living south of the M4, it already only take 10 mins longer to get into Basingstoke than Reading, the car parks are much easier, and the shops are all the same anyway.
So, all this plan will do is put more cars doing more miles and putting more CO2 into the air.
I live about 6Miles from Reading and it already takes at least 30 mins to get into town and parked. Basingstoke takes about 40 and is 15 about Miles away.
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