Road pricing promise
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by Derren Hayes • The Labour Party will support urban road pricing schemes if it wins the next general election, shadow Transport Minister Glenda Jackson confirmed this week.
Jackson says Labour could also ban lorries from some parts of city and town centres in an effort to reduce congestion.
While Labour opposes motorway tolling schemes like those being tested by the Department of Transport, it does want to regulate city centres: "Motorway tolling puts vehicles onto country roads," says Jackson. "It's ludicrous. If local authorities wanted to introduce a form of road pric ing we would look at experimental introducdon but new legislation would be needed to put it in place." One of the ideas being looked at is a banding scheme that increases the charges to vehicles as they go further into city centres.
Jackson rules out a major road building initiative under Labour, saying it would manage and maintain the existing network better and encourage more freight on to rail.
"We want to encourage multi. modal operations," she says, "and there is a great potential for a shift in emphasis. Companies don't mind how they move freight as long as they meet their obligations and it's cost beneficial, but one thing they complain about is the lack of flexibility."
The British Road Federation has reacted cautiously. A spokesman says: "Practical experience of those kind of schemes show they don't work but we would be interested to see if one was tried on a trial basis."