Thetownend.com

An online petition calling on the government to scrap plans to introduce satellite tracking and pay-per-mile road charging has attracted more than 175,000 signatories to the 10 Downing Street website.
The protest, submitted by Peter Roberts of Telford in Shropshire, has 10 times as many signatures as the next most popular petition. The government’s congestion-beating plans to charge motorists up to £1.34 per mile to drive at peak times have clearly angered Britain’s beleaguered motorists who already pay the highest rates of fuel tax in Europe.
In his introduction to the petition Roberts states: “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.”
Transport chiefs claim that unless radical action is taken, the country faces gridlock on major routes within the next 20 to 30 years and the government is funding research into road-pricing to the tune of £10 million. Last year, a report commissioned by the government concluded that road pricing was inevitable and the report’s author, former British Airways boss Rod Eddington, called it an “economic no-brainer”. However motoring organizations say people do not trust the government over the issue, seeing it instead as simply another way to raise revenue from motorists. The petition closes on February 20 and could attract as many as 500,000 signatures.


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

I wont be signing I fully support the proposals if you want to drive a car on well maintained roads then you have to pay for it.It will also stop stupid use of cars for non essential trips.

i'm with yeovil on this.
many of the nations roads are at breaking point with huge vehicle numbers using them,something needs to be done.
public transport needs drastic improvement and investment though.it should be made cheaper!
british rail should never had been sold off by the tories!

The government get money from road tax and fuel tax to sort the roads. I travels a round trip of about 35 miles to work. Why should I have to pay nearly £50 a day for that previlege? The Bus is a no go so what other option would I have?

Agree with you gys to a certain extent, certain journeys are unavoidable, and more schemes like the M6 toll are good.  I do think some of the fees are exorbitant and when you look at certain government spending on their own transport (2 jags) you have to ask questions.  Public transport needs a massive cash injection, as trains should be better quicker and cheaper than they are, some journeys cost more than flights and are slower then the steam trains of 150 yrs ago.

It wont be £50 a day to travel 35 miles thats complete nonsense .

Upto £1.34 a mile  :roll:

What's the point in protesting something that has only been mooted and wouldn't happen in whatever form for 10-15 years.

Fucking online petitions :soapy tit wank:

It says up to 1.34 that will mean top wack for city centres and and busy roads thus stopping people using on them.It will be used to promote car sharing 4 people in a car rather than 4 cars on a the road is better for the roads and the enviroment.

Up to £1.34 a  mile on totally nonessential journeys like half a mile to school in a 4x4, awkward rural journeys or ones not covered by public transport will be considerably cheaper.  I saw a BBC trial of this looking at different people and the school run mum was the worst affected, ulitmately it will probably try and lure people into living nearer their jobs or working nearer their homes.

True. I just don't think its justified. It seems as if the government are yet punishing the motorist.  :evil:

So you are kicking off over something that may actually cost you less money if you use your car properly.stfcfan, do you take the Daily Mail?

:?
I pay x amount on fuel, road tax and insurance a year. We as a country pay higher fuel costs than anywhere in Europe.  Why should I have to fork out anymore? I don't see how it can cost me less money. maybe I'm being dumb.

Fair enough reducing emissions and damage to the environment, but reducing grid locks? Don't think it would happen as most of it is caused by people getting to a place at the same time ie. Work.

you wont be paying road tax if that law came in..its instead of

Road Tax costs me £116 a year. I can't see it being cheaper than that.

But its not coming in this year is it?

The road system needs investment this proposal means that those that use it the most will be paying that investment.If it doesnt come in then everyone who pays road tax will have to pay for it.That means you who travels 35 miles a day will pay as much as somone who travels 350 miles  day.

You pay tax on petrol though don't forget.

It works fairly well in Central London, although the cost of the tube is horrendous as an alternative.  Something needs to be done as the volume of traffic has increased hugely in the last five years alone, but this will only truely work if there is a decent alternative.

Environmentally it won't make any real difference.  If you took every single car off the streets of Britain, the earth would still be fucked.

yeovil has been really grumpy lately, his dog obviously isnt dending over anymore

As for this, I hope if they introduce it they remove duty on petrol and VAT on buying a new car.  Its all tax tax tax these days, I pay about 50% of my earnings in fucking tax, whats the point in working

Ok so what would happen to the cost of travelling to away games like Darlington and Hartlepool???  Most definitely essential journeys  :D   ... and even if there were 4 in the car instead of the usual 2 .. the cost is still significant.

Without an effective public transport infrastructure this is an unworkable scheme.

Then you have the issue of how you charge those who are disabled ..... how do you tell whether they are in a car or not at a given time and presumably nobody is suggesting they should pay the same rate?

They can charge drivers as much as they want as long as they use the money to sort out the public trasport system. Even if it means renationalising the railways.

Petrol is something that people are going to have to accept will get more expensive. Not just from taxes but also with the increasing demand for oil, especially from India and China in the next few years.

why not?

I'm all for equality!

I'm all for pay-as-you-drive.

Currently I pay £175 a year to tax my car, which sits there doing fuck all during the week because I walk to work and it only gets used for essential trips at weekends. I do less than 2000 miles a year probably.

So it'll save me a considerable amount of money.

I do that a fortnight !!!  :shock:

I take the Daily Mail - there would be no problem on the road if it wasn't for asylum seeekers and euro eco-migrants with no licence or insurance...if the government spent the road tax and fuel duty on the roads I wouldn't have just shagged a wheel on some pothole in the middle of Sussex.  Thanks Prestcott, you fat, secretary frotting twat!

i hope you choke.

Oops this is obviously an irony-free zone -  I still think Prestcott is a twat

No comment.

Just outside Goodwood racecourse - bloody great hole in the middle of the road...it's pretty shit near Worthing as well.  Only had to wait 2 hours hence the bad mood!

 :goodpost:

Especially those feckers that have fuck off 4x4 gas guzzlers that never use them for the purpose for which they were designed.
I blame the manufacturers for building the fucking road hogging things in the first place and marketing them as family vehicles/sports utilility vehicles. I mean, what the fuck!.

I don't mind paying toward the upkeep of the road system, as I use it.
But don't I already pay? How much more tax do they want?

The problem is, what do they spend the taxes on?

Invent-a-jobs for guardian reading liberal twats.

I swear this country's heading for  a PC backlash.

But we'll probably be too apathetic to do anything anyway..................