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Something we don't know
Page 9
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Brian Weatherley wonders why the government is dragging its feet on road-us€ A charging when it is obviousl)
the best way forward.
Whenever I told my grandmother something that was obvious she'd reply: "Queen Anne's dead!" And when it comes road charging the late queen is dead, buried and turned to dust. why did the Treasury need to commission the former boss o British Airways to tell us what we already knew? Namely that road charging is the only way to reduce congestion and th the Great British Consumer needs to realise the true cost of transporting goods by road.
Sir Rod Eddington will argue that 'demand management', rather than more roads, is the way to reduce jams.
We'd already guessed that -and so presumably had the Department for Transport when it started talking about a Lorry Road User Charge (LRUC), widely seen as the first step in an all-encompassing system of road charging.
Unfortunately, having taken the two major trade associatio down the primrose path, the then Transport Secretary Alistai Darling decided to drop the LRUC like a hot potato. Why? Because not only is our government obsessed with public opinion, it's terrified of overruling it—no matter how unpalatal the truth. And for the millions of car drivers who form the Gra British Electorate, road charging is a political step too far.
So how is it that a government that can't give us a firm timetable for road charging needs to spend yet more money commissions and focus groups? Because in order to persua the car-obsessed electorate to bite the road-charging bullet, desperately needs 'worthy outsiders' to provide the reasons.
We already know road tolling is the answerwe just want t government to introduce it. Until it does, thousands of cheap foreign trucks will travel on our roads every day, for free. Whic is enough to stark poor old Queen Anne spinning in her gravi • Don't forget to visit Brian Weatherley's own 'big lorry blog' on www.bizbuzzmedia.com or www.tnn.co.uk