Darling c*nt

[Gracie Jones]

Check this press release from DfT. Alistair Darling is giving money to local authorities to help them develop road charging schemes.


DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT
076 5 July 2005
CONGESTION BUSTING FUNDING


£18 million has been made available for local authorities over the next three years to support planning for local demand management schemes where road pricing is a major element, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced today in the House of Commons.

In a statement, he said these schemes could be funded from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). Within the Fund up to £200m a year is ultimately available to support such local pilots. If more good schemes emerge, more can be made available.

The Transport Innovation Fund, which comes on stream from 2008 - 09, is set to increase over time reaching some £2.5bn by 2014/15. The Fund offers substantial, long term investment and will support smarter and better management of the capacity we have.

The Fund will also be used to support innovative local plans which help tackle congestion. We are looking for proposals which combine some form of demand management such as road pricing, with better public transport, including better use of buses, tram or light rail schemes, provided they offer good value for money. These pilot schemes will feed into our wider work on national road pricing.

Alistair Darling said:

"The Transport Innovation Fund is central to the approach I set out in the White Paper. It offers substantial, long term investment. It will support smarter and better management of the capacity we have.
And it will ensure that we can plan ahead, preparing for the long term challenges we face.

"We are today asking local authorities to bid for development funding, which will be made available over the next three years, to support planning for local demand management schemes where pricing is a major element. We have set aside £18m between 2005/6 and 2007/8 to support preliminary scheme development by local transport authorities."

Alistair Darling also announced today that Government plans for distance based charging for lorries will be taken forward as part of wider on national road pricing.

He said:

"Our thinking on national road pricing has developed further. We are now taking forward work on a national system of road pricing, so it is right for us to take forward the plans for distance based lorry charging as part of the wider work on national road pricing - to work for a single comprehensive, cost-effective system.

"So although the current procurement will not continue, we will continue to work with industry and ensure that we carry the full experience gained from the project into the wider work to develop a national road pricing system for cars and lorries."

[headlamp]

He should use that money to launch a campaign to stop drivers using their mobile phones when in their car!!
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Using a mobile phone while driving a car should be made a capital offence!

[Dom]

Just spend £18 million on more roads!
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Photos and that

[Kickstart]

Hi

The basic idea is to make it too expensive for some people to drive their cars at the busy times of day, forcing them onto public transport or to just travel at another time of day.

Nothing really to sort out the pathetic transport network.

£18m is nothing. It is about 4 hours worth of road user taxation. About enough to build 1 mile of motorway.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Dom]

[stinkwheel]