The World Today: Motorists Will Be Hit If No Transport Investment

MOTORISTS could be left “high and dry” by road pricing unless more money is invested in public transport, local council leaders told the Government.

Road pricing represented a real opportunity to ease congestion and help the environment, the Local Government Association (LGA) said in a letter to the Department for Transport.

But council leaders warned that pricing schemes would simply not work in parts of the country because public transport in its current state did not offer drivers good alternatives.

The LGA said town halls were concerned that the money on offer for the first round of road charging trials was unlikely to be enough. While pounds 1.4 billion has been set aside for all potential schemes, Manchester alone estimated that the cost ofintroducing an effective road pricing scheme could top pounds 3 billion.

Allowing councils to borrow money against revenue raised from road pricing would be a way of allowing councils to invest in better public transport.

(c) 2007 Coventry Evening Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.