III COMMENT HIGHWAY ROBBERY
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• The news that the Government has awarded the first concession to build a 50km private toll motorway around Birmingham should be greeted with the question: "Why?"
For instance, why should the road haulage industry, which already pays more than £400m each year in VED and fuel duty above its allocated track costs, pay for using any road in Britain?
Why should an operator already faced with plummeting rates pay £3 for the privilege of driving on a road that the DTp should have built itself 10 years ago?
And why on earth does the DTp think that toll roads will reduce congestion? It's a logic that is as flawed as its traffic volume predictions for the M25. Paying to use a road is a strong argument to stay off it, regardless of whether it is any quicker.
Of course it suits the DTp to let private companies pick up the tab for roadbuilding — not least as the penalties for cost overruns on construction and reductions in traffic volumes fall squarely on the concessionaire "and not the Government".
What it doesn't say is that the same costs get passed directly on to the user... in higher tolls. Has nobody learnt the lesson of the Humber Bridge?
If the Government is as successful as it would clearly like to be in promoting "pay as you drive" toll roads then presumably it won't be long before every haulier in the country gets a massive VED tax rebate. After all, their trucks won't be using DTp roads any more.