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Fuel-tax Cuts Could Beat Inflation

4th March 1960, Page 34
4th March 1960
Page 34
Page 34, 4th March 1960 — Fuel-tax Cuts Could Beat Inflation
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

As the Budget approaches once again, talk revolves round the question of the fuel duty, and whether the Chancellor is likely to reduce it.

There is no doubt everything is in favour of a cut. The arguments are unanswerable. The Chancellor himself is putting up the cost of living by putting every form of public transport in the red.

A cut in fuel tax in this Budget would he one of the biggest blows Mr. Amory could deal to the cost of living.

Yet all the talk suggests, at best, a " standstill " Budget. Government spending has gone too high; inflation is again an enemy.

But Mr. Amory could do something about the tax on diesel fuel at the cost of only a few millions. The result in savings could well go right through the economy.

New Traffic Rill Soon Now that March is here, the Marples Road Traffic Bill will soon be here as well. it is strange that, after visiting Europe and the U.S., Mr. Marples comes out in favour of the overhead pavements of Roman Britain. He need only have gone to Chester, but had he gone even • wider afield, to Caracas, Venezuela, he would have seen the Roman ideas brought to 20th century perfection.

We are Co have another traffic debate

on March 11. This will be raised by Mr. Norman Cole (Soc., South Beds) and his subject is the use of traffic engineering to relieve traffic congestion. This will give Mr. Marples an opportunity to expound the ideas he has picked up.

Mr. Marples is also to examine the possibility of requiring all lorries to have a rear light on each of the four extreme points, as is the practice in the U.S.

He points out that in the U.S. and certain other countries, large vans are more extensively used than here, where the size and shape of lorries and their loads vary considerably. He feels it would be difficult, if not impossible, to light the upper extremities of them all, but the suggestion is there.

Should M1 have a kerb? Mr. Marples was questioned on this and thinks, for safety reasons, raised kerbs are not desirable. Kerbs to mark the outer edge of the hard shoulders would also interfere with drainage, but other means of defining the edge are.being considered.

Talking once again of fuel—Mr. Marples was asked the other day if he knew that lorries and buses in Moscow ran on methane. He replied that the Ministry had known for years of the theoretical potentialities of methane as an alternative motor fuel, but as the quantities available here are so small, experiments would not be justified.

Tags

People: Amory, Norman Cole
Locations: Chester, Moscow, Caracas

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