Britain one step closer to road pricing system

Britain one step closer to road pricing system

	Published : Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:05 By : James Rowe Print this Story

LONDON: Britain is set to evolve a road pricing system and the government moved towards this direction by funding seven local authorities to develop pilots that will be later adapted in congestion charging by all the cities and towns in the country. The government wants to bring about a basic change in the way drivers pay for road use.

It is providing funds to the extent of 7 million pounds to the seven local authorities, which will undertake studies on a new system that will target motorists who use road during the busiest of times and charge then up to1.34 pounds a mile. New taxes on parking at work places and increased parking meter charges are the other aspects that will be covered under the study, along with proposal for conversion of important parking bays from long-stay to short-stay.

The seven areas identified for the pilot are Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Tyne & Wear, Cambridgeshire, Durham, Shrewsbury and a coalition of authorities around Bristol and Bath.

Transport secretary Alistair Darling said the charging schemes to be evolved will be more sophisticated than the schemes like the current toll levied in central London. Distance travelled and amount of congestion should be determining factors in the charge, Darling said.

He said while utilising the funds, towns and cities outside London should test electronic tagging and satellite tracking systems that allow charges to be directly related to the level of traffic on the roads.

The first scheme, he said, would come into being within 18 months and one or two areas would start charging by 2008 or 2009. The government has put aside funds up to 200 million pounds a year from 2008 for local authorities to introduce charging systems. The councils are being given greater control over local bus services. They will also receive extra funding for public transport.

Under the funding scheme, West Midlands will receive 2.6 million pounds, a consortium of local authorities in the Bristol area will receive 1.49 million pounds, while Greater Manchester will get 1.25 million pounds and Tyne and Wear 950,000 pounds. Cambridgeshire, Durham and Shropshire will receive smaller sums.

West Midlands is expected to develop a pilot road-user charging scheme, for adaptation as the national scheme. Tyne and Wear will work on a potential road-user charging scheme and Cambridgeshire will look at the possibilities of local congestion charging. Durham will study enhancements possible to the city's congestion-charging scheme, while Shropshire will consider a local congestion charge for Shrewsbury.

Darling told a conference of the Confederation of British Industry that the government was adding new road capacity where it was needed and changing the ways roads were managed. But such measures, he said, are inadequate without firm steps to remove congestion. And road pricing is the only alternative.