Road pricing 'won't end congestion problems'

David Millward
The Telegraph
Feb. 16, 2007

The case for road pricing as the key solution to the country's congestion problems received a further blow yesterday from the influential all-party Transport Select Committee at Westminster.

In a withering condemnation of the Department for Transport's performance, it said that pay-as-you-drive charges were not the panacea that ministers had claimed.

The MPs also warned the DfT against putting pressure on councils to sign up to road pricing. Their broadside came within weeks of Stephen Ladyman, the roads minister, rejecting a bid from Leeds for Whitehall cash because the proposals did not contain plans for "demand management".

Gwyneth Dunwoody, the Labour chairman of the committee, echoed the complaints of some of her own backbenchers that road pricing was being treated as the only solution on the table.

Even though she backed plans to run pilot studies, Mrs Dunwoody warned ministers: "Road pricing will not solve all the problems of the road network, and other measures, including better and affordable public transport, must also be taken forward." Overall the report painted a dismal picture of the DfT, which spent Ł13.5billion of taxpayers' money in 2005-6.

The MPs found that it was on track to meet only two of the seven targets it set itself: Rail punctuality and road safety.

Even the latter goal has been undermined recently with the latest quarterly figures — showing a small rise in deaths on the country's roads.

Mrs Dunwoody said: "This is a terrible picture of failure. The department's only successes are against road safety and rail punctuality targets.

"And I imagine that most rail users would be surprised to hear their experiences described as the pinnacle of the department's annual achievements, whilst success against the road casualty targets is subdued by the daily toll of death and injury."

The committee chairman also rounded on the introduction of cheap bus fares for the elderly, an initiative which had been marked by disputes between councils administering the scheme and bus companies.

The department was also failing to crack down on unsafe heavy goods vehicles, especially ones from overseas.

Mrs Dunwoody also criticised the DfT's environmental performance. To date, transport has not been pulling its weight in the UK's efforts to avert climate change." She added: "The department continues to neglect its responsibility to improve air quality. As a result people die in large numbers each year. It must make air quality a priority."

The DfT defended its record and welcomed what it described as the committee's support for its "measured approach to the issue of road pricing". The department added that it had met the target for rail punctuality six months early and that progress was being made on air quality.