Pay as you drive: On the way
Pay as you go driving is set to become a reality on roads in the West Midlands - it could mean monthly bills dropping on doorsteps, charging up to £1.50 a mile.
Pay as you go driving is set to become a reality on roads in the West Midlands.
It could mean monthly bills dropping on doorsteps, charging up to £1.50 a mile for driving on the region's main roads.
Today the Express & Star reveals the reality of the road tolls system, set to be outlined within two months and in place within a few years.
A new Government bill will give councils like Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Manchester the power to set up road-pricing schemes as they see fit.
But Staffordshire County Council has no plans to get involved.
The council's cabinet member for economic prosperity and sustainable communities Councillor John Wakefield said road charging would have no benefit for Staffordshire – and warned that it could even damage the economic advantage of the county.
The tolls would be deeply unpopular with motorists and drive up costs for businesses in the region, threatening jobs.
George Munro, a director of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, said: "It is a tax on the ordinary working man.
"Around 20-30 years ago the working man went to a big factory on the bus. We don't have those large factories any more. People have to travel to workplaces scattered all over the region and public transport simply cannot get them there.
"People have to go out and look for jobs and the last thing they need is to be charged for getting to and from their place of work.
"Road users are already one of the highest taxed groups in the country. The Treasury taxes over £42 billion a year from road users and spends just £1.6 billion on trunk roads and motorways.
"It seems a bit much to ask the people of the Black Country to pay even more for these roads and the transport infrastructure that we have got at the moment."
Seven councils in the West Midlands – Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Solihull and Coventry – have been working with the Centro passenger transport authority for more than two years laying the groundwork for such a scheme.
Within the next two months still-secret plans should be approved in order to hit a Government deadline. It could use satellite technology linked to a "spy in the car" black box in every vehicle, or rely on roadside cameras and microwave detectors scanning for tell-tale chips in cars, vans and lorries passing by.
In return for setting up a road charging system the West Midlands will be given £4 billion to spend on public transport, road building, an expanded Metro system and a new railway station at New Street in Birmingham.
But the region's drivers will have to foot the bill, forking out for road charges that could dwarf the £400-a-year currently faced by London drivers paying the Congestion Charge.
The region's seven local councils have yet to give the official scheme the green light, despite making positive noises towards it behind the scenes.
Councillor Wakefield said Staffordshire County Council has not been involved in the regional project.
"Although we have some congestion problems in Staffordshire they do not appear on the radar nationally compared to the problems experienced by metropolitan areas," he explained.
Councillor Wakefield said that when the issue or road charging had been discussed by the cabinet several years ago the view was that it could put the county at the risk of disadvantage.
