TALES TOLLED BY AN IDIOT
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• There is no logical justification for building roads in this country with private cash and then trying to recoup their construction costs through tolls.
If there is an alternative free route, most people will take it. Look at the financial catastrophe surrounding the Humber Bridge. Tolls will only work if they are part of a nationally integrated "pay as you drive" system, as in France. How can we sensibly expect road users to drive up a newly-built, tolled M1 relief road when the old M1 next door is free of charge?
People may do it to avoid traffic jams, but just think how much it will cost them.
Because they are likely to be few in number, they will have to pay astronomical tolls to stand any chance of giving the construction investors any hope of a passable return on the alternative Ml.
Paul Channon's Government has been committed to "rolling back the frontiers of the state" ever since Mrs Thatcher first came to power in 1979. By imposing a tolled road system on the country, it is going back on its word and rolling forward private frontiers with yet more needless bureaucracy.
Hauliers costs would skyrocket. Transport managers should be button-holing their MPs, reminding them that we are already among the most highly taxed operators in Europe, and asking why we should pay yet another tax — even to the private sector.