Road Pricing - Prime Ministers Response

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Check your junk mail hehe, because Tony has been busy writing bull!

Tony said:
This is a complex subject, which cannot be resolved without a thorough investigation of all the options, combined with a full and frank debate about the choices we face at a local and national level. That's why I hope this detailed response will address your concerns and set out how we intend to take this issue forward. I see this email as the beginning, not the end of the debate,

Means... "We're going to ignore you all!"

Pricing is not being forced on any area

Lol, clearly he doesnt drive in London.
 

K10Daz

RIP Colin McRae 1968-2007
We are, for now, working with some local authorities that are interested in establishing local schemes to help address local congestion problems

Reminds me of the League of Gentlemen - This is a local shop for local people, theres nothing for you here!


Just read the email, he obviously didnt write, and there is no real answers in there? Its just the same thing repeated over and over again just worded differently! I think they have realised if they impose these new tax schemes there will be a big uproar from everyone, not just haulage companies etc etc!
 

Pete

Site Supporter
Leeds trialed a road pricing scheme between Rothwell and the City Centre, they ripped it out after the trial, considered it a failure. mwah hahaha
 

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
Moderator
Site Supporter
Found the email in my junk folder too. A bit pants really. Seems to have missed the point. I doubt that many people who signed the petition actually worry too much about congestion, to me its just one of the negatives to owning a car, the journey takes a little longer.

Compare that to standing on a packed train for twice as long, with a sweaty arm pit in my face, and paying four times as much as it costs to do the same journey in petrol... In my own space, comfort & listening to whatever i like, as loud as i like - i think i'd rather sit in traffic!
 

Pete

Site Supporter
Thats the thing, if they made it so public transport was comfortable, clean, cheap and faster than the road network they would be able to cut congestion. Personally I drive up to 40 000miles a year, what I do requires that I drive a car, i'm on my own, I carry equipment and can't take public transport, a road pricing stratergy would just price me out of doing my job, even if my work covered the cost it would make it harder to support the number of surveyors we have, it would mean jobs would be lost. Far from cutting congestion all I can see is that it will increase the cost of living even further. Given how much it costs to buy a house these days, along with ever increasing taxes on items were going to get to the situation where the economy won't be able to support the number of people in it, dragging us back to the boom and bust days of the Thatcher era. Gordan Brown did a lot for this country in stablising the markets and making the UK a secure place to be, you only have to compare the value of £ to $'s! but what's happening now is a panic as they couldn't cut the UK's emmisions in other areas to the extent they wanted to.
 

micra_pete

Ex. Club Member
Pete, i agree with everything you just said there, however some food for thought would be, however its doubtful it would work like this!

currently driving our little micras around will cost something like this

Miles Cost £

5000 540
12000 1296
20000 2160
40000 4320

now, if this was to be done fairly they should scrap tax on fuel, essentially pay as you go.

Which would work out around

Miles Cost £

5000 269
12000 646
20000 1076
40000 2153

this would mean small, economical cars would be the way forward, however as im sure everyone else feels, i can't see it working like this!

what i can see it being.. as its to cut congestion, its tax, and fuel tax remaining, and this being added, but surely this should be considered before everyone is "up in arms"

does anyone actually know the pricing strategy yet?

on a similar note though, think ourselves lucky we don't live in Singapore, where for a small car like ours your talking tax and running costs of around £3500 p/y plus paying around £4000 for a 10 year old micra, price per mile at its highest can be £1.20 and an average salary of £8500...
 

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
we are lucky ish i guess, in hong kong tax on new cars is 100%. which simply means a £10,000 car would cost £20,000.
 

Pete

Site Supporter
Thing is Pete I drive a 200g/km diesel car! which is for sale by the way!!!

No I'm just up in arms because it looks like it's going to cost me more, I'm trying to move nearer work but places like yours have shot thru the roof recently.
 

micra_pete

Ex. Club Member
house prices are crazy pete, i've just bought another house in wrenthorpe, the cost of living, with things like this being added, will force people from their homes, everything is far too expensive
 

Pete

Site Supporter
wrenthorpe? lucky you. Looks like I can only just about afford to buy in Royton just over the border from you. I can't get any closer to Leeds without doubling my budget.

Anyway, hope you and the family are well?
 

NeX

You're after my robot bee
Club Member
any little black boxes in my car wont be there for long ;)

i thought that the point of the government where to serve the people and make happen the will of the majority... not listen to everyone and then do something else...
 

Krian

Fear me, for I am Onibaku
If they really wanted to cut city congestion then they should turn around and undo everything they've done to the streets in the past 10 odd years in london.

The transport ministers decided people were going too fast, and needed to be slowed down - road congestion is one of the best ways of doing this, hence putting in road narrowing devices, speed bumps, etc.

Barnet Council decided to ignore all of this and did basically the opposite - widened key roads, removed speed bumps, improved sight lines, etc. Hence Barnet is now pretty nice to drive through, and has had the biggest reduction in deaths and serious injuries from traffic accidents.

Ken Livingstone heard about this, and decided to with hold a whole load of financing cos they weren't following 'his' plan fwn Councils and governments very rarely seem to listen to what the people actually want, instead they form think tanks and do things based upon their opinions. Unfortunatly the vast majority of people in those think tanks dont actually live in the conditions they're trying to solve.

Linky to stuff on barnets road policy if your interested.
 

Pete

Site Supporter
To be honest I'd listen to what micra pete has got to say on the best ways to manage traffic, given his role and everything.

I've heard mention (in MCN) of removing street furniture reducing congestion and working?
 
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