Government Road Pricing Plans

[Andrew Hornsey]

Just found this new government e petition website. The new Road Pricing the government is considering is on it. Below is the basic blurb about the petition

"The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay.

It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs.

Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion."

If you want to sign it, this is the address http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

What do people think about it?

Andrew

[Bluebottle]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hornsey

"The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong.

Why?
What have you got to hide?

[Andrew Hornsey]

Just quoting from the e petition site. But no, I do not particularly like the idea of my every move beeing logged.

I have nothing to hide. It just smacks of big brother, and treats me like I am under suspicion.

And what bad uses can be found. Did anyone complain when hitler started logging peoples religion. Not at first. I know it is an extreme comparison, but who knows who will be in power in the future, of who will gain access to the info (The DVLA will sell your info to anyone for a start)

Andrew

[Tim Falce]

Shouldn't this be in Road car?

[chezza]

Blimey give me a chance!!

I'll send it over!!

[thebear]

You might wish to read THIS story before `Storming Buckingham Palace'.

[Bluebottle]

In principle I have no objection to paying per mile, we already do it in the form of fuel tax!
Such a scheme would have to copletely replace the existingVehicle Excise Duty in order to be acceptable and would have to come with a reduction in fuel tax. That would result in a system that's fairer to drivers who do a lower than average milage per year, classic car owners who only drive their classics for a few months each year for example.

Would a GPS base system be able to accuratly monitor the posistion and speed of the many millions of cars on our roads at any one time? What if your tranceiver box 'fails'? Would the system get confused by an off-roader going 'green lane' driving? etc etc....

[garcon]

The ABD "hardline" - now that is funny. Bunch of incompetent, BNP voting fools who do no favours to genuine car enthusiasts. But not exactly hardline.

I can agree with the Government on one point. Congestion is costing British business £millions, and the status quo simply isn't sustainable.

However, the policy of simply trying to price motorists off the roads is fundamentally flawed, especially when the rail companies are simultaneously trying to price us off the trains.

Do you believe people want to sit in traffic jams for three hours a day? If the vast majority of car commuters had a clean, reliable and cost efficient alternative they would use it.

[Gridlock]

Subject: VERY IMPORTANT (if you drive) and are a marshal that have too meet your own transport costs.


Dear all

Please forward to everyone you know that owns a car/M/Cycle, or has owned a car, or is thinking of owning one in the future.

After paying:
Road Fund Licence (Tax...for having a car), Fuel Duty (Tax....for using fuel in your car), Parking fines (Tax because councils don't provide enough parking) and Fixed Penalty notices (Tax for getting caught, momentarily exceeding the speed limit), the Government are now taking the mick if they think we are going to take "Mileage Tax" lying down!! Join us in trying to stop them squeezing more out of your wallets and making dog showing just for the rich !!

So if you want to do something about it sign up, and have your voice
heard! The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you
having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it.

The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the
BBC,the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a
delivery driver. A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to
school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will
know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have
been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit you can
expect a fine and 3 points with your monthly bill.


If you care about our freedoms and stopping the constant bashing of the
car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website



http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

[Gridlock]

Hi Clicked the button too quick. If this is not the right place for this type of message about Motoring costs, be free to move or cancel it.

[Nighthawk]

Signed Petition

[The STIG]

Thought it was going to be instead of roadfund and fuel duty?

(if so, my parents would be ok, but I'd probably pay more, and besides that I pay almost £1000 in tax to get on the road anyway (including Insurance, which is a tax because you have to have it))

[Suze]

Yes, signed as well...

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by The STIG

Thought it was going to be instead of roadfund and fuel duty?

(if so, my parents would be ok, but I'd probably pay more, and besides that I pay almost £1000 in tax to get on the road anyway (including Insurance, which is a tax because you have to have it))

What dream world do you live in? This will be an extra tax on top of road fund and excise duty.

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by thebear

You might wish to read THIS story before `Storming Buckingham Palace'.

'Storming Parliament', surely? However, it is clear that the proposer of the petition has a vested interest (although that could apply to most of us motorists) and has according to a government spokesman over egged the impact (which doesn't, of course, mean that it wouldn't ultimately happen)! The fact is that we already, as has been pointed out, pay more for travelling further and/or greater fuel consumption through a heavy tax. I understand that over 70% of our petrol prices are tax. How much of it goes back into transport? We know that at least 50% of the road tax fund gets hived off into other areas and has done ever since Winston Churchill hijacked it back in 1955, and it's never been returned! The motorist must surely be providing more than ample funds in tax to provide development of a proper transport infrastructure for the UK. Frankly, I'm still angry over the destruction of much of our rail network over 40 years ago by Dr Beeching and one of the previous incarnations of this governement. And why are we not targeting one of the biggest single polluters; the airline industry? Easy, motorists are soft targets; airlines aren't, and at the end of the day it's all about money which is why the government insists that it is prepared to allow more flights and foist more runways upon us. Hypocrisy; what hypocrisy?

Originally Posted by THe STIG

.......(including Insurance, which is a tax because you have to have it)

The fact that it is compulsory doesn't make it a tax. It is a legal requirement to ensure that if you kill or injure someone or damage their property that you (through the insurer) are able to pay for it; entirely reasonable I'd have thought! But this raises another issue; all the statistics show, I believe, that over a million (conservative estimate?) irresponsible, thoughtless and selfish drivers in the UK drive without insurance or road tax. Now what about getting them off the roads; that might ease congestion somewhat as well as making it safer. If they can't afford it they should use public transport .... oh wait, we need to invest in that first to enable them to do so!

[tim dodwell]

Hi All, I know this is not quite the right place to post this, but I am sure you all are against this road pricing idea (which will cost the tax-payer a bomb, every car will need an expensive gadget, and then we will pay even more to drive). You can now register a protest with the PM by using this link http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/
Much cheaper and easier to put most of the road tax onto the fuel - but the civil service are blocking all suggestions on this solution to save the economy of Swansea (according to our MP).
Anyway, spread the word about the petition (if you agree) - they probably won't listen unless they get scared about losing votes!!!
Cheers, Tim

[Dan Friel]

There seems to be so many common misconceptions about such a scheme (and much scare mongering). Before signing up to any petition, do your research and form your own educated opinion.

[tim dodwell]

Originally Posted by Dan Friel

There seems to be so many common misconceptions about such a scheme (and much scare mongering). Before signing up to any petition, do your research and form your own educated opinion.

Misconceptions? You mean the infrastructure won't cost billions? Or the units to be fitted into EVERY vehicle won't cost hundreds? Or that that the fairies will pay for it all, instead of us - the vehicle owner and taxpayer. If anyone is going to get rich from all this, then I can understand their backing for such a complicated scheme - but sorry, most road users I have spoken to are NOT in favour of this scheme.

[Paulaweybridge]

Hi everyone,

I signed this petition a little while ago.

This government really is the worst that this country has seen.

The UK is probably the most expensive country in the world to live in right now and apart from the NHS ( and I mean this ), I see little advantage of living here.

This is why I spend a lot of my semi-retirement months in the USA where I can afford to go out and eat, drive around and have a far higher quality of life than here in the UK.

Ever since New Labour came into power, this country has been going down the drain IMHO.

Have a nice weekend....

Paula Hamilton

[John Turner]

Paula, I'm no fan of this government, but it certainly isn't the worst this country has seen; not in my lifetime, anyway. As for eating out it depends on where you live, and just as importantly, what disposable income is available. Surrey is one of the most expensive counties in the country, and the South East the most expensive area; it's why I moved away from the South East. We can get eat well out in Lincolnshire quite cheaply.

However, we've got a bit off topic here. I don't on the face of it agree with road pricing, since, as has been said already, those who travel further or drive vehicles with greater fuel consumption are already paying more in fuel bills over two thirds of which is tax. However, since I haven't yet read the detail of the proposals and whether there is any trade off, and I think the petition promotion wording is so heavily loaded, I'm a bit reluctant to sign it .... so far!

[kickstart]

One of my issues with this proposal is that however the Govt of the day water it down to get it past the voters the costs will soon go up and I cannot believe for a minute that a Govt will not use the system to monitor speeds as well.
Perhaps an apt comparison is with the London Congestion Charge, isn't that set to rise considerably ?
Plus I wonder how the system is going to cope with endemic rise of cloned vehicles (number plate pinched from similar model car and put onto rogue car) - this is now a major problem for the Police in Manchester.

[tim dodwell]

Over a million now have signed the petition which shows the level of opposition to that expensive scheme - if the Civil Servants would listen, we could get a lot of the benefits of road pricing by simply putting most of the road tax onto the fuel. Not all - keep say a £5 road tax, so that the civil service doesn't lose loads of jobs, and the economy of Swansea does not collapse!!!

[Gridlock]

Having heard the Minister of Transport on the Radio today I got the distinct impression that as usual the government say they listern to the public but then go on to do what they want to. The role of MP's is not to represent us but to make up our minds for us.

[Craig]

We tried to sign this today at work, but the No 10 website first reported that it was unable to accept our submission as it was 'receiving severe levels of traffic' and then it fell over completely. I don't think people want to see this somehow...!

[Craig]

I have just signed right now. Incidently there are now 1.2 million 'signatures'