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GORDON, ARE YOU SERIOUS?
Page 10
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We always knew it was a sham, but the announcement regarding road charging in the government's transport plan just confirmed it. Remember all that nonsense Gordon Brown spouted about creating a level playing field within Europe when the Lorry Road User Charge was first floated in his pre-Budget speech back in 2001? How lorry charging meant foreigners would be made to pay for using our roads and this was the way forward?
Well, we've been had. It's a government scam. Lorry road user charging (LRUC) is and, we'd venture to suggest, always has been the Trojan horse designed to gain public acceptance of road charging for all. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we'd have preferred some honesty.
Derek Beevor gave a dire warning about the scale of the LRUC project in his CM interview a couple of weeks ago. No doubt, in the long term, the computer systems will be put in place to make such a scheme an effective means of taxing us all for the miles we travel. But in the short to medium term, there's trouble ahead. And who'll bear the brunt of those problems? Yes, you've guessed it: the road transport industry.
• This aside, there's been a smattering of good news for the road transport sector this week. The M6 Toll operator has dropped it rates for trucks; the government has deferred the introduction of the extra duty on fuel; and VOSA has finally got its act together on operator self service. Surely, time for a party?
Sorry to douse your festive spirit but each of these issues should have been dealt with months, if not years ago. The toll was always too high. The fuel duty increase should have been abandoned years ago, never mind deferred. And VOSA? Dear Lord, missing a deadline by three years is hardly cause for celebration. It's all welcome news, but no reason to relent in our efforts to win a fair deal for the one industry this country could not do without.