Tony Bliar's response:
[quote]The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to "Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy" has now closed. This is a response from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Thank you for taking the time to register your views about road pricing on the Downing Street website.
This petition was posted shortly before we published the Eddington Study, an independent review of Britain's transport network. This study set out long-term challenges and options for our transport network.
It made clear that congestion is a major problem to which there is no easy answer. One aspect of the study was highlighting how road pricing could provide a solution to these problems and that advances in technology put these plans within our reach. Of course it would be ten years or more before any national scheme was technologically, never mind politically, feasible.
That is the backdrop to this issue. As my response makes clear, this is not about imposing "stealth taxes" or introducing "Big Brother" surveillance. 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, and the links below provide an opportunity for you to take it further.
But let me be clear straight away: we have not made any decision about national road pricing. Indeed we are simply not yet in a position to do so. We are, for now, working with some local authorities that are interested in establishing local schemes to help address local congestion problems. Pricing is not being forced on any area, but any schemes would teach us more about how road pricing would work and inform decisions on a national scheme. And funds raised from these local schemes will be used to improve transport in those areas.
One thing I suspect we can all agree is that congestion is bad. It's bad for business because it disrupts the delivery of goods and services. It affects people's quality of life. And it is bad for the environment. That is why tackling congestion is a key priority for any Government.
Congestion is predicted to increase by 25% by 2015. This is being driven by economic prosperity. There are 6 million more vehicles on the road now than in 1997, and predictions are that this trend will continue.
Part of the solution is to improve public transport, and to make the most of the existing road network. We have more than doubled investment since 1997, spending
Road tax petition
A sentence that jumps out at me:
We need to keep fighting on this one
Why introduce a system that requires huge (and i mean huge) investment (read waste) of our money into tracking movements in vehicles when the existing fuel duty already does the job of pricing per mile covered. Does that stop the mileage being put on?
Why would a supposedly tax nuetral system of road pricing do that?
Or maybe there is another reason they want to track movement:
- they can track speed that we are going .... mmm who needs speed cameras
- they can pinpoint any of us on a map at any time .... mmm wonder what would happen if (read when) that info got into the wrong hands
oh and how long before a technowizard develops an illegal blocker for the p.a.y.g. system?
It rages me to think that we will stand by and watch this stealth tax and big brother invasion of civil liberties and spying get dressed up as a "green" bill for our own good.
Complete tosh - wake up people.
The solution is not enforcement - it is quite the contrary it is about education and incentivising people to be greener.
As I said, fuel charges have not dented the amount people drive, it has just raised revenue for some other labour back pocket scam.
What they havent answered with this is:
- will foreign cars be exempt? (hmmm ... i see a loophole)
- will hire cars be exempt? (another loophole waiting for exploitation)
- will uk cars registered to foreign nationals be exempt
- how will they then encourage people to make days trips to our failing tourist attractions? (they will fail and cause huge hikes in unemployment in old tourist areas like GY or Sunny Hunny etc)
- how they will ensure that people that havent paid their
Note the word "could" rather than "would" to avoid a definitive promise of removing tax from fuel, road licence, car insurance (IPT) etc. I would be prepared to bet good money that fuel taxation and road fund licence will not be scrapped.Clearly if we decided to move towards a system of national road pricing, there could be a case for moving away from the current system of motoring taxation. This could mean that those who use their car less, or can travel at less congested times, in less congested areas, for example in rural areas, would benefit from lower motoring costs overall.
We need to keep fighting on this one
Why introduce a system that requires huge (and i mean huge) investment (read waste) of our money into tracking movements in vehicles when the existing fuel duty already does the job of pricing per mile covered. Does that stop the mileage being put on?
Why would a supposedly tax nuetral system of road pricing do that?
Or maybe there is another reason they want to track movement:
- they can track speed that we are going .... mmm who needs speed cameras
- they can pinpoint any of us on a map at any time .... mmm wonder what would happen if (read when) that info got into the wrong hands
oh and how long before a technowizard develops an illegal blocker for the p.a.y.g. system?
It rages me to think that we will stand by and watch this stealth tax and big brother invasion of civil liberties and spying get dressed up as a "green" bill for our own good.
Complete tosh - wake up people.
The solution is not enforcement - it is quite the contrary it is about education and incentivising people to be greener.
As I said, fuel charges have not dented the amount people drive, it has just raised revenue for some other labour back pocket scam.
What they havent answered with this is:
- will foreign cars be exempt? (hmmm ... i see a loophole)
- will hire cars be exempt? (another loophole waiting for exploitation)
- will uk cars registered to foreign nationals be exempt
- how will they then encourage people to make days trips to our failing tourist attractions? (they will fail and cause huge hikes in unemployment in old tourist areas like GY or Sunny Hunny etc)
- how they will ensure that people that havent paid their
I think you'll find if this is implemented it will take us back to the
days of the poll tax riots.
It's time this Goverment realised they can't keep screwing us every time we turn the ignition key of our cars. He states it could lead to a cut in road tax not that it will. If this is bought in it should lead to the abolition of road tax and fuel duty then perhaps people will accept it. But they won't do that as the coffers would run out and they'd then have to find something else to tax us on like going for a 'S4
days of the poll tax riots.
It's time this Goverment realised they can't keep screwing us every time we turn the ignition key of our cars. He states it could lead to a cut in road tax not that it will. If this is bought in it should lead to the abolition of road tax and fuel duty then perhaps people will accept it. But they won't do that as the coffers would run out and they'd then have to find something else to tax us on like going for a 'S4
1991 MK1 GTO TWIN TURBO
