EU may raise UK charges
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k UK hauliers could be hit by even higher running costs and more road tolls if recommendations contained in a controversial new EU report are adopted.
The document, The Costa Report, is calling for charging costs in the EU to be standardised in a bid to pay for transport infrastructure.
This would mean tolls on all roads and increasing vehicle licence fees.
And research seen by the Dutch government suggests the demand for revenue could push up diesel prices by more than 20%.
Tory MEP Philip Bradbourn, who is opposing the suggestions, says: "My personal view is that freight users will be hit if some of this goes through. What could happen is that a levy, for example, could be added to everyone's road fund licence—even though in the UK we pay more in the form of vehicle taxes and fuel duty."
Bradbourn, who has compiled a list of 46 amendments so far, says most of the European transport organisations are horrified by the proposals.
The report is expected to go to committee stage at the end of September and will then be submitted to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Paolo Costa, an EU civil servant for the Committee on Regional Policy. Transport and Tourism, wrote the report.
• Tolls on the Skye Bridge have been ruled legal by Lord Advocate Colin Boyd. But Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has hit out at the verdict that the paperwork used to set up the tolls was legal despite not being signed and dated. He says he will continue to press for a satisfactory answer.