Conservatives on Road Pricing ... no motorists champion here either

Well, as well as being taxed to put a vehicle on the road, taxed on fuel ... twice, congestion tax and the stealth tax of parking penalties it looks like the Conservatives are also going to agree, in part, to the principle of road charging.
The Motorist needs a voice a little louder than the Motorists Voice spokesman who cowered in the presence of Paxman last week on Newsnight.

Dear Anne,

Thank you for your email about road pricing.

It might be useful if I explain for you in more detail what our position on this is.

We believe that some degree of road-pricing or an increased use of tolls on our roads is likely to be a part of the strategy of any Government for tackling congestion on our roads. We are happy to see the development of local road pricing schemes in cities as long as they are welcomed by local communities and not imposed by central Government.

We are also ready to see charging used to fund improvements to our transport network, as happened with the M6 Toll but would not want to see premature moves to an untested national scheme, and we believe that road-pricing should be used to manage demand for road space and generate additional transport capacity, rather than to price people off the roads altogether. We are awaiting further recommendations from our Quality of Life Policy Group and our Economic Competitiveness Policy Group on this subject.

We accept the principle of road-pricing in some situations. We also accept that we will be inheriting some schemes in development in 2009. We would not enter Government with the intention of scrapping such schemes, and it is a possibility that a Conservative Government would add to these schemes.

Although road-pricing, allied to improvements in public transport, could help to reduce carbon emissions this is not its primary role; primarily, road-pricing is a congestion management tool.

We are looking at road-pricing in terms of improving the management of existing capacity, and then increasing capacity, not in terms of raising revenue for unrelated purposes. We would also look to improving alternative transport systems as part of our approach to tackling congestion.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Sheffield
David Cameron's Office House of Commons London SW1A 0AA

From: Anne Palmer [mailto:anne_stgeorge@hotmail.com]
Sent: 12 February 2007 23:09
To: CAMERON, David
Cc: Anne Palmer
Subject: Road Charging
I have just watched the evening news and our Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Scotland , the Rt Hon Douglas Alexander, appears to be unaware of "road charging" for the UK and seems somewhat surprised at the number of votes against Road Charging for this Country. With the greatest respect, I place here where I get news for what is to happen eventually in the UK against the wishes of a great many people. People ARE beginning to bother to vote and stand up for themselves because the politicians are not looking after them..
Anne Palmer

EU: New European road charging interoperability project launched
eGovernment News – 14 October 2005 – EU & Europe-wide – Interoperability

Road Charging Interoperability (RCI), a project financed by the European Commission, aims to demonstrate how any road charging transaction in Europe can be carried out with a single set of in-vehicle equipment.
The RCI project, which started in June 2005 and will end in May 2008, is funded through the European Commission’s Directorate-General Energy and Transport. It will address the issue of interoperability of road charging between European countries, and trial and demonstrate interoperability between six neighbouring countries – Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
To this end, RCI will develop an open, integrated framework enabling road charging interoperability at the technical level based on the key existing and planned road charging deployments in Europe.
The RCI consortium brings together almost 20 partners and is coordinated by the European Road Transport Telematics Implementation Coordination Organisation (ERTICO) – a public/private partnership pursuing the development and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS).
Project partners met with European Commission representatives in mid-September 2005 to discuss and update a set of project objectives and to define a clear work approach. According to ERTICO, the project’s objectives are as follows:
· Specify the RCI prototype that can operate in any of the existing RCI road charging environments.
· Implement the specification and build one or more prototypes.
· Test the prototype(s) in field trials at six sites: Austria (Europass), France (TIS), Germany (Toll-Collect), Italy (Telepass), Spain (Via-T) and Switzerland (LSVA)
· Support additional test sites representing other key deployments such as Norway (Autopass), Portugal (Via Verde) as well any key deployment within new Member States such as Slovenia.
The main result of the RCI project will be a set of validated proposals that will help the European Commission define the European road charging service.
According to the directive on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community adopted in April 2004, a European electronic toll service shall be created to ensure the interoperability of electronic toll systems at technical, contractual and procedural level.
The decisions relating to the definition of the European electronic toll service shall be taken by the Commission, assisted by an Electronic Toll Committee representing the Member States, by 1 July 2006.
© European Communities 2005
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
The views expressed are not an official position of the European Commission.
Disclaimer Further information: · News release and project presentation by Ertico · Directive 2004/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community, and corrigendum · Towards interoperable electronic toll systems on the roads of Europe, article published by the eGovernment Observatory on 25 April 2003
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