FITA calls for road cash
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been told by the Freight Transport Association to improve Britain's congested road network. It wants him to spend more and build more; to cut traffic jams; to strengthen bridges; to ensure Channel Tunnel benefits reach operators in the North and in Scotland; to boost multi-modal Section 8 grants, and to provide better truckstops.
In a submission aimed at influencing Chancellor Nigel Lawson's autumn spending statement, the FTA says: "Industry urgently requires an expansion of the national road network which it is paying for through high vehicle taxation. The roads programme must not be allowed to stagnate. The current moratorium on motorway and trunk road maintenance (see page 10) must be lifted without delay."
Association director-general Garry Turvey says: "Congestion has become a major problem for industry which is striking at the very heart of our competitiveness and efficiency." He fears that Britain's roads have become so unreliable for hauliers that goods are not being delivered on time, the quality of produce carried is not being maintained, promises are being broken and distribution costs are not being curtailed as a result.
The FTA does not think that there is any excuse for the Chancellor to tighten his purse strings this autumn. It says that "road users are already more than paying for the roads they need. The latest allocation of costs shows that the road freight sector alone will pay £495 million more in tax to the Government than its allocated road costs in 1988/89. The tax overpay on a 38-tonne artic is expected to be £3,014".
If 38-tonne artic operators are paying £3,014 more to the Treasury than they get back in road spending, 2+2 32.5-tonne operators are paying about £1,700 a vehicle over the odds; rigid four-axle 21 to 39-tonne operators about £1,000 extra; rigid three-axle 23 to 25-tonne operators about £600 more; and rigid two-axle 3.5-tonners about £550 more. Buses and coaches, however, are subsidised and pay less than their due to the Treasury. The bur den is too high, says the FTA, and it objects violently to private cash for road building with tolls to recoup the cost.
The association does not object to private finance in principle, it merely wants to ensure that private road schemes are additional to the Government's road programme.
If our roads crisis does not improve dramatically, warns the FTA, traffic jams will become a political hot potato again. According to Cornwall North MP Gerry Neale: "Come the next general election, traffic queues could eclipse health service lists as an election issue."