MP Voices Objections Over Shrewsbury Road Charges

By Early, Catherine

The MP for Shrewsbury has slammed proposals to introduce a road pricing scheme in the Shropshire town.

In a debate in parliament last week, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham Daniel Kawcynski insisted that there is no congestion in Shrewsbury. The town’s park-and-ride-scheme has reduced congestion to below icoos levels, he claimed.

The town would be a guinea pig for the national scheme and would lose out as a result, said Kawcynski. “The problem with having this measure tested on us is that in the short and medium terms there will be huge fiscal downsides for my community,” he insisted.

Kawcynski said many businesses have told him that they will move to Telford if such a charge is introduced. The government is effectively forcing the town to introduce some form of congestion charging by saying that it must be part of the package if it wants to receive funding to complete its ring road, he maintained. He went on to claim that Shropshire County Council might be tempted to bid for cash through the transport innovation fund (TIF) merely to get funding for the ring road more quickly.

Transport minister Stephen Ladyman admitted that the county might he tempted to do that, hut if it did it would have to “sell the process to the local population”. He added: “The council has made no commitment other than to be open-minded about congestion and transport.”

The council could even reject demand management schemes and still hid for the ring road through funds other than the TIF, he suggested. Ladyman is set to visit Shrewsbury next month to discuss the issue.

A Department for Transport spokesman denied reports that it is developing a zonal system for road pricing where all roads in each zone would he charged at the same rate to prevent rat running and privacy problems

The idea was suggested by Ladyman at an event run by the Social Market Foundation think-tank. However, the spokesman stressed that is not an actual proposal.

Shropshire County Council was unavailable for comment as Planning went to press. It was awarded money from the TIF to investigate road pricing in November 2005. So far, only authorities in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands have published the results of their research on this issue.

Shrewsbury: MP says there is no congestion in the town

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Mar 9, 2007

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