Toll road Bill gets the go-ahead
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• Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson has given the green light to private toll roads.
Last week Parkinson published The New Roads and Street Works Bill, which will permit developers to bypass Parliamentary procedures and win permission to build private roads simply through public inquiries.
He said that the private toll mad plan was not a substitute for public road investment, which would not decrease. "We see this as a way of attracting additional resources into the road programme," he said.
A number of schemes are already underway, including the Dartford-Thurrock crossing of the Thames, a second Severn bridge and a toll motorway north of Birmingham. Parkinson said he was confident more private developers would come forward with schemes as they "became aware of the potential of toll roads".
He would not put a figure on how much road building would take place or what tolls were likely to be, but declared: "So long as new roads are not in a monopolistic position such as an esturial crossing, their operators will be able to set whatever tolls they Like."
If owners pushed tolls up too high, people would simply not use their roads, he believed.
Hauliers may be forced to pay for repairs to roads damaged by crashes.
In cases of proven negligence, the Department of Transport is considering the idea of suing guilty parties after an accident, the Transport Minister Christopher Chope said last week.