THE plan to introduce road user charging is yet another of New Labour's infantile, bureaucratic and hugely expensive attempts to treat the symptoms of our problems rather than their root cause.
The main problem is a transport infrastructure that cannot cope, because it was never designed to, and the solution is to update it. There are, of course, serious issues to be addressed about the cost and availability of public transport and why people need to travel so much in the first place.
One rather obvious example is government's emphasis on brownfield development. This results in businesses being worth more dead than alive and the owners of the new houses built thereon having no local employment. It's that simple. The claim that building more roads simply creates more traffic does of course beg the question, "why then are we building more prisons?" We already have mileage-based road charging; it's called fuel duty.
DR JONATHAN LOCKHART, The New Party, London.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article