The government faces an uphill battle to implement road pricing after past experiences have left motorists doubtful it can deliver a fair system.

 

The only way ahead would be to appoint an independent body to oversee any congestion charging scheme with guarantees where that money would be spent, claimed AA president, Edmund King.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee, which is investigating taxes and charges on road users, he said motorists were already paying considerably more than was being spent on the roads network.

“Our experience of tolls is that motorists don’t trust government,” said Mr King.

“In London we were told the charge would be £5 for at least five years then within two years it was £8.

“On the Dartford toll we were told that once the bridge was paid for the toll would be removed and it has not been removed it’s just been increased.”

However, he acknowledged many motorists could gain if a national road pricing system was done fairly with clarity and certainty.

Manchester voted overwhelmingly to reject its congestion charge, with nearly four in every five people voting against it, reflecting the recent result of a similar vote in Edinburgh.

“In pure, economic theory if you have got a scarce resource like the road network you should charge for it,” said Mr King.

But, with around £8 billion being spent on road transport from the government’s take of approximately £45 billion from road users, more investment was needed to tackle the £13 billion cost of congestion to business, he claimed.

“If a higher proportion of the money was spent on the road infrastructure that would reduce the cost of congestion and therefore there would be more winners in terms of businesses,” added Mr King.

“It is a real cost and not everybody can use a public transport alternative.”