Road pricing no solution

The government's Transport policy regarding congestion and the environment is now so inept it seems to deal exclusively in dreaming up new methods of extracting yet more revenue from the motoring public and the transport industry.

It is patently obvious that road pricing is no solution at all, merely another stealth tax.

There is already a road pricing system in place, it is called fuel duty. The more you drive the more you pay, and the less fuel efficient your vehicle is the more fuel it uses, the more you pay again! And you don't need billions of pounds of tracking and IT equipment to police it.

Congestion is caused by an excessive amount of people with vehicles trying to get themselves or goods to a destination around the same time. They are not sitting on congested roads by choice, their only reason for being there is to earn a living and contribute to the economy of the country.

To introduce further taxation on to an already overburdened tax paying population is nothing short of scandalous.

The effective solution to congestion and many of the environmental problems is to ensure vehicles are as environmentally friendly as possible, remove unnecessary traffic where possible, improve efficiency of the road network, and ensure clean, effective alternative means of transport are put in place through a combination of public transport systems - road, rail and light rail or tram systems - and give incentives to encourage their use.

We tax people for having a car - is there any reason we cannot give tax breaks or allowances for people who choose not to have a car or utilise public transport?

And also there is an urgent need to improve the transport infrastructure and network of both road and rail systems.

It is very easy for the transport secretary Douglas Alexander to say "The UK does not have the luxury of doing nothing" and "Our roads are literally filling up" but his government appears to be doing nothing in offering transport alternatives to drivers and companies or demonstrating any inclination to improve public transport and the transport infrastructure.

P W Taylor, Ryder Street, Wordsley.