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John Redwood MP says he and his colleagues have gone hoarse In Parliament telling the

19th October 2000
Page 50
Page 50, 19th October 2000 — John Redwood MP says he and his colleagues have gone hoarse In Parliament telling the
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

government that fuel taxes are too high while money is wasted elsewhere...

• If you want to sound off abouta road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane or fax your views (up to 600 words) to Micky Clarke on 020 8652 8912.

dd British hauliers are being taxed and bludgeoned off

the road by the government. In the three-and-a-half years we have suffered under this administration, it has pushed our fuel taxes, which were around the European average, up to the top of the table. It has sent licence fees sky high, and imposed a great deal of new paperwork and cost on lorry owners and drivers.

It started out doing all this in the name of the environment. It saw the lorry, the van and the car as the sources of all pollution. It ignored the central heating boiler, the factory chimney and the bus. It then decided to try to tax the haulage industry into submission.

Ft was crass politics and lousy environmentalism. It simply meant that foreign lorry drivers were more likely to grab the business as they did not have to pay all the extra costs heaped upon us. Far from clearing the roads of trucks, it just meant flagging outer more foreign vehicles.

Then the government told us that the real reason for high taxes on commercial vehicles was to pay for a proper integrated transport policy. We are still waiting. We see a small fortune being spent an chicanes, humps, coloured tarmac, traffic lights and bollards, but nothing being spent on new bypasses or more transport capadty of the kind we need. John Prescott famously told us that if he did not reduce traffic levels during his time as Transport Secretary he would have failed. Leaving aside his great success in achieving this during the petrol strike, the government has now been forced to admit that traffic levels are going to carry an rising.

It has not put in place a sufficient alternative on trains or buses to make the difference. So where, then, is the spending on the extra road capacity, both to increase safety and to cut journey times?

The government has no sense of urgency or crisis in the hadage industry, despite the endless protests and warnings from the industry. Ministers keep telling us they are listening, but if they are they are either not understanding, or they are completely incompetent. land some of my colleagues have gone hoarse telling them :n Parliament that fuel taxes are too high. We have told them that licence fees are too high. We have proposed a licence fee on foreign lorries coming here so we can cut the cast to British owners and drivers. The government listens—and ignores.

The government failed to anticipate the fuel strike, and kept changing its line during it. First we were told that it would confront it and win Nth no concessions. Then we were told it understood and would take action. Now truckers waft patiently to see what will happen, and the answer is a lemon.

All of us need to keep sending a strong democratic message to this government: hauliers can take no more. It is unfair and it is bankrupting the industry. Mr Brown does not need all the money he is collecting : he does not know how to spend it all. A government which can find Ilbn for the Dome and countless millions to waste on buying aims does not need to collect all the tax it is levying.

So I say to the government, give the hauliers a break. They are overtaxed and in danger of going under, Take some of the pressure off now, before it is too late.

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