Will Lib Dem support for Road Pricing face riders with new charges although Motorcycles and Scooters don’t congest?

Posted: 23rd April 2010 | No Comments »

Let me start by saying that this blog is not triggered by a desire to pore scorn on any of the three major parties. But it is fuelled by a deep frustration that despite the fact that motorcyclists and scooterists are a small but significant group of road users and the electorate, all of the main parties have addressed rider’s concerns and issues in the run up to the election with a deafening silence so far…

So. Spotting significant differences between the key proposals for transport by the three main UK political parties is, as far as I can see, close to a needle in haystack hunt. But when it comes to trying to decide which one of the main parties may have the most to offer riders of motorbikes, mopeds or scooters, it gets even more difficult – even after or perhaps especially after the second ‘gloves off’ televised leaders debate – where a clear winner was difficult for anyone to pick who was looking at it without a preconceived political inclination.

Clearly, after the first TV debate a new ‘I agree with Nick‘ craze began, and now it seems that the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg may still just be top of the pops in style for TV debate viewers. But, as I have none of the party leaders on offer for me to vote for on May the 6th, I’m more interested in what their party polices are and whether they are likely to improve the way motorcycling related issues are addressed or make them worse.

Sadly as far as I’m concerned, there seems to be space in each party’s manifestos; Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem, for a few ‘politically correct’ lines on the wonders of  walking and cycling, although many of those who make up the nationwide totals are actually too young to vote – whereas there is no manifesto place for mention of powered two wheeler rider’s issues – even though there are well over 1.5 million of us, and the fact is that most Riders ARE Voters.

This leaves me with no alternative for now but to dig deeper into what the three main parties are saying about their policies for road users in general. And there lies at least one potential bombshell for the future of UK motorcycling.

There is one difference above all that could be a key factor in ending the ‘I agree with Nick’ craze that kicked off after the first televised leaders debate – and this could have a decisive impact on some key marginal seats including Richmond in London where transport and ‘motoring taxes’ are big bones of contention…

The Lib Dems want to “use road pricing revenue to cut fuel duty” according to an ePolitx.com summary in a concise and accurate list of key transports policy proposals by the three parties.

To be fair, the Lib Dems seem to think they have found a way to prevent a potentially devastating wave of objections to this proposal among a big majority of voters. Buried at the back of their manifesto on page 80, they say road pricing will not be introduced straight away but in “a second parliament” and that it would be “revenue neutral“.

But Lib Dem hopes that the UK electorate will trust any assurances about a new nationwide motoring tax, flies in the face of all the hard evidence of public opinion to date. The simple facts are that every time that the great British public have had a chance to vote on a proposal for a Road Pricing aka Congestion Charging scheme; 75% of them have said no.

Despite the massive efforts and even ‘bullying‘ by the current Labour government to push such schemes in Edinburgh and Manchester, (which I investigated and reported on extensively during my time at LTT) all hopes to impose such schemes were emphatically crushed.

And, lest we forget or you didn’t know, all the truly well informed experts on this issue agree that the main reason that Livingstone got away with imposing his Congestion Charge in London was that he had none of the trappings of a major political party to bother with when he steamrollered the scheme onto the streets during his first term in office – as he had been chucked out of the Labour party before his election as mayor for daring to defy their choice of more biddable mayoral candidate.

It is also a fact that Londoners only had two opportunities to vote on a Western Extension of the central London scheme and 70+% said no on both occasions. The first was on whether to go ahead with it which Ken Livingstone ignored, and the second was to keep it or remove it which Boris Johnson respected.

Now, the Conservatives have distanced themselves from any plans for nationwide road pricing – apart from a scheme for lorries which presumably they hope will not grab widespread attention or adverse reactions. And although Labour have said they will not try to introduce road pricing in during the next parliament, there are responses to Freedom of Information Act questions to show they may be secretly plotting to introduce it if they could in due course.

All this leaves Nick Clegg and his Lib Dem parliamentary candidate colleagues standing alone as manifesto advocates of nationwide road pricing – with Labour quietly waiting in the wings with hopes of joining forces to introduce it. But, there is at least one place where there there is a good chance of this turning into a big clanger for the Lib Dems, namely Richmond. Since the creation of this constituency the seat has been held by Lib Dem stalwart, Susan Kramer, who is to my personal knowledge a very big fan of the whole Road Pricing idea. However, her opponent in this election is none other than the Scooterist Conservative Zac Goldsmith who I know from recent conversations is extremely focused on trying to deliver a win for him and the Tories.

In the interests of balance I should say that I know there are a few key figures in the upper echelons of the Conservative party who are still very keen on the road pricing idea, but at least the party whips and policy wonks have the political sense to ensure they stay schtum for now.

So, never mind how many politicians ‘agree’ with Nich Clegg, the Lib Dem link to a new nationwide motoring tax may disincline a significant number of voters from joining that gang…

---