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MPs slam10-year plan for transport
Page 8
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• by Guy Sheppard The Freight Transport Association is backing an influential group of MPs who say the government is ducking out of commitments to reduce traffic congestion in its 10-year transport plan.
A damning report by the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee says the plan already seems to be behind schedule just over a year after it started. It attacks the government for failing to tackle increasing car use for fear of offending motorists.
The MPs go on to say the plan lacks vision and fails to produce a coherent picture of what, when and how much it will achieve.
They says they are "astounded" that the Highways Agency has apparently had no strategic input into the plan, even though it is respon
sible for the trunk road network which carries 67% of the UK's freight and 34% of all traffic.
The MPs conclude that if the government is going to rule out charging for road use it must "find other ways of managing the excessive and self-defeating growth of traffic".
The FTA argues that with trucks facing a tax on distance travelled in 2006, some form of general road pricing should be introduced soon after that date to control congestion.
FTA chief executive Richard Turner hopes that the committee's report will act as a wakeup call to the government: "Writing the plan down was the easy part—nobody appears to be responsible for making it happen."
But Road Haulage Association chief executive Roger King says there was never any prospect of big improvements so soon after the plan was launched: "We have no evidence that the commitment is being watered down. We have to be patient and allow time to deliver" A Department of Transport spokesman says its first annual review of the 10-year plan will be published in July. He claims that says the criticisms are based on "a misunderstanding".
"The plan is not a detailed blueprint, but a strategic framework," he adds. "The various delivery agencies, including the Highways Agency, are developing their own detailed strategies that include delivery plans, milestones and targets."