New Whitehall plans being drawn up to levy additional taxes on motorists

David Ruffley MP warned that Whitehall bureaucrats and politicians were accelerating plans to introduce new taxes on drivers in Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Needham Market through road charging.

In September, the Department for Transport appointed a 'road charging steering group' to report back on the practical implementation of introducing these new taxes. Now, the Labour think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, whose Director is currently seconded to Downing Street to write the next Labour manifesto, has recommended road pricing of 10 pence a km for rural motorists (and 20 pence a km for urban motorists). This would raise £16 billion a year and be on top of petrol tax. David commented,

'In London, Ken Livingstone supported by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, are already hammering drivers with a new anti-car tax- an annual cost of £1,260 a year, and the tax zone is to be extended.

'Now Whitehall bureaucrats and politicians are planning to charge motorists an extra £16 billion in taxes. Only Conservatives have pledged to oppose these new taxes. Labour and the Liberal Democrats fail to understand that there aren't viable public transport alternatives and that extra taxes will hit the vulnerable the hardest- like the elderly, the poor and those in isolated rural areas. Residents in the towns and villages around Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket rely on their vehicles to access vital services such as doctors, schools and shops. This is yet another example of urban Ministers failing to understand the realities of rural people.'