Rural Scots Drivers Could Benefit from Toll Scheme

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 11th Jul 2004

Proposals by the Government to introduce more tolled roads have been welcomed by John Thurso, MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and the Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesman. Under the new scheme, drivers would be charged every time they sue their car on the road, with drivers in less congested areas paying less than drivers in built-up areas.

John Thurso confirmed that he has been pressing Transport Minister, Alistair Darling, to look at introducing the scheme and that it could help lessen the hardship on motorists in sparsely populated areas such as Sutherland and Caithness.

"We need to concentrate on charging for car use rather than ownership and the most effective way to do this is through a national road charging scheme. We would definitely be the winners. It seems to be a far more equitable way of charging in the first instance - it would be extremely neutral in overall tax take. The driver in a congested area would be paying more and the driver in a rural area would be paying less.

"The technology to do it is there but the ability to implement it would be a minimum of five years. We would be looking at a five to 10 year programme."