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First I've heard of it too.

Maybe we can hold our own protest in Newark on 16th .... I think we've a similar number of bikes turning up

yeh lets block the car park.

this related article is interesting..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7433641.stm

Kwackerz wrote:this related article is interesting..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7433641.stm

In one hand, take more out of the other

Choice bit of reporting?

At that time, fuel duty would be cut as well and road charging introduced at 8p a kilometre for motorways and trunk road.
This could increase to around 12p for cars that pump out the most greenhouse gas emissions, while the most efficient vehicles would pay nothing.

Sorry, I thought we drove along in Miles, not Kilometres!!? Those figures seem presented to give a 'thats not too bad..' reaction from the readership - until they convert it over?

Sorry for the derail btw, Alad.
Going back to the original article, it was quite widely reported? It was promoted on FB, I seem to recall.
A poor turnout for something that people scream and shout about.. maybe people have resigned themselves to being shafted, or many have seen it as futile and not worth the rideout..

Kwackerz wrote:Choice bit of reporting?

At that time, fuel duty would be cut as well and road charging introduced at 8p a kilometre for motorways and trunk road.
This could increase to around 12p for cars that pump out the most greenhouse gas emissions, while the most efficient vehicles would pay nothing.

Sorry, I thought we drove along in Miles, not Kilometres!!? Those figures seem presented to give a 'thats not too bad..' reaction from the readership - until they convert it over?

Hmmm so ignoring the actual amount of money they take in fuel tax, we currently have a nice simple system.
We buy our fuel and pay our tax.
The less we travel the less fuel we buy and the less tax we pay - on all roads (not just Motorways and Trunk Roads).
There is a very strong correlation between the level of emissions and the fuel used - so we currently have a built-in mechanism for taxing the more polluting vehicles at a greater rate per mile.

So what will scrapping fuel duty give us if the trade is for a tax per mile with the rate based on your vehicle's pollution rating?
Well, we can be sure that on average we will pay the same - or probably more - they can't afford to cut taxation.
If the tax will be applied to motorways and trunk roads, people will try to avoid tax - they will choose to travel on the other roads leaving the country's safest roads and moving to roads that just don't have the capacity (and, in comparison to motorways, the sorts of roads that WE enjoy). Accidents will rise, guaranteed.
Also if they are going to charge vehicles on their actual mileage, then one thing is implicit ..... monitoring.
We'll have to have kit on our vehicles that either transmits our position at all times, records our position at all times and transmits every so often (along with infrastructure) or there will have to be an infrastructure installed that uses number plate recognition and records the journeys of our vehicles.
So, there's the huge cost of all this on top of the tax PLUS even more surveillance/spying on the population ..... and with all this in place, will they only use it to assess our journey tax? We all know the answer to that one!

Please let me pay my fuel tax (but if you can see your way to reducing it a tiny little bit .....)

And if they have gone to the expense of installing all of this fantastic equipment which 'monitors' our journeys then they will surely be able to tell how fast we are going at any givin time too. So increasing the 'tax' we pay by fining us for speeding.

Personally I would scrap the Road Fund Licence and increase the cost of fuel by 1p per litre. This would surely be the fairest way to tax the heaviest users the most, whilst benefitting those that drive less, or drive less polluting vehicles, by hitting them at source.

The reason that fuel is so expensive - and we aren't the most expensive in Europe by the way - is because oil is expensive. Why is this the fault of the Government? Are they making a profit out of crude as well ? And I know it's taxed, but it's still taxed at the same rate that it was taxed 10 years ago so it isn't all their fault.

Tax on fuel is tax on everything transported and that isn't the heaviest users, it is everyone.