I along with 1.8 million others received an e-mail from Tony Blair at 10 Downing St in response to my registering for the online petition against road pricing.
In an e-mailed reply to all the signatories he wrote that no decision had yet been made on pricing, but the aim of a scheme would be tackling congestion.
"Funds raised by pilot projects would be spent on local transport," he added.
"I fully accept that we don't have all the answers yet"
The petition appeared on a section of Downing Street's website set up in November to allow anyone to address and deliver a petition directly to the prime minister and calls for the scrapping of "planned vehicle tracking and road-pricing policy".
"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."
But he said that allowing congestion to grow unchecked "would be bad for businesses, individuals and the environment", costing an extra £22bn in wasted time in England by 2025.
He goes on to say: "I know many people's biggest worry about road pricing is that it will be a 'stealth tax' on motorists. It won't. Road pricing is about tackling congestion."
Well do we believe him? the taxi trade for one, has a lot more to lose than most, being unable to avoid using congested roads at peak periods we are going to pay through the nose which ultimately will have to be passed on to the public. Only problem being is who pays the road toll when we are traveling empty between fares?
1 comment:
Hi, I like you signed the petition on this issue, do we believe what he said? I dont think so!,as an ex taxi driver i appreciate your problems, but as we both know all the return empty parts of the fare,will have to be included in the fare(tariff)to be passed again to the unfortunate customers.All the best. Bob
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