Action
Briefing
Aug
2004 - Sept 2004
The Newsletter
of
Birmingham Friends of the
Earth
|
Action
Briefing |
|
|
|
|
The Newsletter
of |
West Midlands News
M6 Expressway: The Two-Tier Toll Terror!
On 7th July the Department for Transport (DfT) announced a national consultation on proposals to build the UK's second private toll motorway in Staffordshire and Cheshire alongside the existing M6.
The consultation centres on the building of a new road, dubbed the 'M6 Expressway', which would then be tolled in a similar manner to the M6 Toll in Staffordshire and Warwickshire. However, it does not identify the means by which construction will be financed, the concession regime involved, the methodology of tolling, nor the toll rates that would be charged. Indeed, it doesn’t even identify a route for the road. For this is a consultation on the principle of using a tolling mechanism to build new roads and add capacity to the road network.
If they can get away with this sort of scheme in the West Midlands/North West then they will use it to try and ‘widen’ other motorways all over the UK. The result would be a two-tier road system across the countryside resulting in more congestion in our towns and cities. The biggest losers though will be public transport users and those without access to a car.
Road-User
Charging
A couple of weeks later on
July 20th the Government announced a refreshed Transport White Paper entitled
“The Future of Transport” in which it kicked off a national debate
on comprehensive road-user charging. This is to be welcomed but it could take
at least ten years for a charging regime to become a polluter-pays reality.
While we support the principle of a variable charging mechanism for all roads at the point of use, we do not support the principle of building new roads and then funding them through a toll mechanism.
Friends of the Earth believes variable road-user charging should be introduced as part of a wider policy of traffic reduction. Drivers need to be encouraged to think more about the journeys they make at the point of use, whether they have to make the journey at all, and whether there are alternatives such as public transport, cycling or walking.
A variable charge will differentiate between rural and urban areas and reflect public transport availability along different corridors and at different times of the day. The money raised should continue to be invested in high quality public transport, thereby recycling the resources and giving everyone more choice as to how they get about on a day-to-day basis.
As well as tackling congestion, road-user charging will help reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from transport (good news for the DfT now that it's been given joint responsibility for the Government’s carbon dioxide emissions reduction target). There will still need to be tax on fuels to reflect the pollution and climate change costs, however.
You are urged to respond
to this national consultation on building new roads and paying for them through
the use of toll booths. Send your responses to:
Steve Berry, Roads Policy Division, Department for Transport, Zone 3/01, Great
Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR
Tel: 0207 944 6097, Fax: 0207 944 2195, Email: steve.berry@dft.gsi.gov.uk
More info and campaign details on the following web sites: