ROAD TRANSPORT MATTERS IN PARLIAMENT
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Parliament Reassembles. Increased Road Grants. Petrol Duty Yield. Estimated Road Fund Increase. Clear Vision for Steam-wagon Drivers.
By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent.
It TR. CHURCHILL, when Parliament resumed on ..L.V.IApril 15th, after the Easter recess, presented his fifth Budget. Many rumours had gained currency as to his intentions with regard to motor and petrol taxes, but, as the event proved, this branch of taxation has, this year, been practically left alone, one or two small alterations being made, which are in the nature of concessions.
It is proposed to vary the scale so that 11 10s. shall be the rate of duty for motorcycles not exceeding lb. in weight unladen, instead of 200 lb. This alteration has been frequently urged, as it affords a desirable margin to manufacturers. With regard to goods vehicles, a readjustment is to be made, whereby the rate of duty for goods vehicles weighing over two tons but not exceeding 21 tons .unladen, will be reduced from £40 to,,,135, with a rebate of 20 per cent, in the ease of vehicles fitted entirely with pneumatic tyres.
The rates for goods vehicles of other weights and for electrically propelled goods vehicles remain unaltered. It will be provided that, for the purpose of the duties, a vehicle shall not be deemed to be an electrically propelled vehicle unless the electrical motive power be derived either from a source external to the vehicle, or from an electric torage battery, which is not connected with any other source of power when the vehicle is in motion.
Increased Road Grants. Increased Road Grants.
HAVING condemned Mr. Lloyd George's proposals for raising a loan of £200,000,000, chiefly for the purpose of immediate road development, in addition to the existing programme of development, and maintained his attitude against forcing road construction to an extravagant pitch in a country which has already the best roads in the world and is spending more on them than any other country in Europe, Mr. Churchill announced a concession to assist in the provision of employment for those without work.
The balance of the Road Fund is about 14,500,000 and the percentage grants for road improvements and new construction are to be increased to the level of those for maintenance. The grants for this year towards approved schemes are to be 60 per cent. for Class roads and 50 per cent, for other roads and bridges. It is proposed, in addition, as an inducement to local authorities to assist in the transference of labour from depressed areas, to give an additional grant of 15 per cent, in respect of all schemes on which not less than 50 per cent, of the men employed are drawn from such areas, provided they are engaged through the employment exchanges.
The additional allocation will bring the expenditure ouf of the Road Fund this year up to £23,000,000, as compared with /15,000,000 in 1924. The aggregate expenditure on roads is now nearly /60,000,000.
Petrol Duty Yield.
filHE Chancellor estimated that the yield from the petrol duty this year would be 115,700,000, which would be sufficient to meet the half-year's de-rating relief to industry and agriculture. When the full scheme of de-rating relief comes into operation in 1930, the petrol duty is expected to have contributed 117,000,000 to the /36,000,000 required for the scheme, 13,000,000 being provided from the Road Fund. In the past year the oil duty. yielded /800,000 above the 112,200,000 which was his final estimate, after the exclusion o kerosene for taxing purposes a year ago. Th:s duty, he said, had proved extremely easy to collect and had not checked the rapidly increasing use of petrol as much as they had thought it prudent to allow for in the Budget estimate.
TyreManufacturing Trade. TyreManufacturing Trade. DEFENDING the -import duties, Mr. Churchill. stated that, as the result of the protective or quasi-protective and revenue duty imposed on foreign motor tyres, six factories for the manufacture of foreign goods had been established in this country and increased employment had resulted. The export of British tyres had been fully maintained, Mr. Churchill said, the import had been diminished by more than onehalf, and the price of tyres had fallen 15 per cent. since .April, 1927:
Estimated Road Fund Increase.
VROM the Budg4 statement of revenue and expendi ture it appears that the estimated expenditure of the Road Fund for 1928-29 was /21,300,000, the revenue being £21,131,000. The Exchequer share of the motorvehicle duty was £4,226,000.
For the year 1929-30 the expenditure of the Road Fund is estimated at 122,600,000, being 11,300,000 more than the past year's Budget estimate of 121,300,000. • The receipts of the Road Fund for 1929-30 are estimated on the existing basis of taxation (which will only be disturbed to a small extent by the Budget concessions) at 122,600,000, this being an increase of 11,469,000 on the revenue of £21,131,000 in 1928-29.
It is estimated that the loss to the Road Fund in respect of the new adjustment on motorcycle duty will be 140,000 and in respect of the goods vehicles coacession £50,000.
Clear Vision for Steam-wagon Drivers.
REFERRING to an inquest, at Westminster, on a woman who was knocked down by a steam wagon when crossing Victoria Embankment, and to the opinimt of the jury that steam wagons should no longer be licensed unless the driver had a full and unrestricted view of all the road, Mr. Day suggested that the Government should consider amending legislation, giving effect to the opinion of the jury.
Colonel Ashley said his attention bad been drawn to the inquest. The Motor Cars Use and Construction Order, 1904, provided that the driver shall not be in such a position that he cannot obtain a full view of the road and traffic ahead, but he had, .f some time past, been in communication with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders with a view to the imprevenient of the vision of steam-wagon drivers.
Dartford-Purfleet Tunnel.
T" proposed road tunnel under the Thames from Dartford to Purfleet has been estimated to cost approximately £3,000,000, to which is added £800,000 for contingent road works. The London Traffic Advisory Committee has informed the Minister of Transport that, in its opinion, the new Victoria Dock Road and a number of other works in the metropolitan area are of more immediate urgency.
Mr. Lloyd George on New Roads,
MR. LLOYD GEORGE was critical of Mr. Churchill's reference to the building of "racing tracks" all over the country. He pointed out that each year there were 500,000 commercial vehicles running along these roads and they were increasing in number year by year, also motor coaches were not racing cars.