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Sarah Kennedy was on about this proposed car tax scheme on the radio apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax. The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people had signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it. This is legit... from the 10 Downing Street's website. Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition. Democracy in action? The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month. On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill. If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/ Sign up if you are in agreement with the petition - if not just forget it.

I'm afraid that, if it's on 10 Downing Street's official website, I don't trust it!!!

nearly 632,000 signatures on it now - excellent finishes 20th Feb

Just been and gone and done it! My husband is a GP and the profession is receiving a bashing on the radio about how the government underestimated how hard they work/how much they get paid. The amount of money we would have to pay in a month for his work related travel makes me feel sick - and I bet it would not be classified as a 'work expense' either. Someone also told me that Greedy Gordon is about to pass legislation (very quietly I bet) to appropriate any savings in accounts that have not been touched for a while, so if you are keeping a nice little nest egg somewhere, keep a very close eye on it as well! Oh, and there are also moves afoot for houses that are lived in for six months to be taken and rented out to council approved tenants, whoever they may be. So if you work abroad and pay tax here you may lose out again if your contract suddenly changes. what a nasty lot! Abigail

Hi never been on tips before glad I looked tonight I new nothing about this but now i've added my name and will tell everyone I know. Thanks Christine Paul

List going up fast - thanks for info - just signed now there are 632,877 signatures

I have just signed. There are now 633,101. Power to the people.......we hope!!! Linda

Thanks, just signed

From BBC website 6 June 2005 Drivers could pay up to £1.34 a mile in 'pay-as-you go' road charges under new government plans. The transport secretary said the charges, aimed at cutting congestion, would replace road tax and petrol duty. Alistair Darling said change was needed if the UK was to avoid the possibility of 'LA-style gridlock' within 20 years. Every vehicle would have a black box to allow a satellite system to track their journey, with prices starting from as little as 2p per mile in rural areas. Mr Darling has outlined his proposals to the BBC - previewing a speech he will give to the Social Market Foundation on Thursday. 'The advantage is that you would free up capacity on the roads, you would reduce the congestion that we would otherwise face and you would avoid the gridlock that you see in many American cities today,' he said. 'This is a prize well worth going for. We've got to ask ourselves: would it work. Could it bring the benefits that I believe it could bring, because it would make a real change to the way we drive in this country.' A satellite tracking system would be used to enforce the toll, with prices varying from 2p per mile for driving on a quiet road out of the rush hour to £1.34 for motorways at peak times. 'Big Brother' worries The department of transport says the scheme would be fairer because those who travel greater distances would pay the most. Concerns that the tracking system would lead to the state knowing where people were all the time, would have to be addressed, said Mr Darling. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was not trying to drive motorists out of their cars. 'It will mean taking some stick. There are a lot of difficult decisions to be taken,' he said. 'I honestly think road pricing could provide us with a way of managing our roads, of getting more out of it, which must be good for us as individuals as well as the country as a whole.' Shadow transport secretary Alan Duncan said he had concerns about the technology and implications for civil liberties. But he also told Today: 'I think it is a vision for the future ...We have more cars in the same amount of space so we do have a problem with congestion.' A pilot scheme could be carried out using volunteer drivers in a large British conurbation within five to six years, but a national scheme would be rolled out within 10-15 years. The Environment Agency's Nick Rijke warned that shifting money away from fuel duty would take away the incentive for people to use green vehicles. Price incentives? And AA Motoring Trust director Bert Morris said there were a number of issues which needed to be addressed. 'Tourism is car-based in this country. Would we have empty hotels on summer days on the coast if people couldn't afford to drive?' It was also important to ensure that drivers with less money were not penalised, Mr Morris added. But transport policy expert Professor Stephen Glaister, from Imperial College, said: 'I'm pretty confident that it will make a big difference ... people do respond to price incentives.' RAC Foundation spokeswoman Sue Nicholson said the plan could help counter a projected 45% growth in congestion problems by 2030. No choice 'Providing this tax was substitutional to fuel tax and road tax and provided we had some other guarantees then I think, for a lot of people, this would be a tempting option,' she said. Environmental group Friends of the Earth broadly welcomed road charging but warned the transport crisis could only be tackled if money raised was invested in improving alternatives to car travel. But the Disabled Drivers' Association's executive director, Douglas Campbell, urged protection for disabled people against increased costs in motoring. 'Many disabled people have no choice other than to use a car as public transport just does not meet their door-to-door transport needs,' he said.

n for Margaret.

Im not sure how it works? Can you explain how a mum running kids to school had to pay £86 per month? It cant be based on mileage then can it? Is it based on the roads you use and the times?

637,765

....tracking device, the modern day equivilant to a cow bell, we are all being milked, that includes us Bulls! Bob

If she was a non working mother what on earth was she doing driving the kids to school in the first place?

It is dependant on which roads you use/ time of day etc. look on the bright side though, no more tax on fuel or road tax :-) Can you tell I don't drive.

Daily Telegraph: 'As a company car driver, Mr Roberts also feared that employers could track where staff had been from their road pricing bills' Er, so?

Signed earlier this afternoon but it has taken me forever to find this thread again. I could have sworn I saw it on the General board.

We live in the country 10 miles from the neares town, we are pensioners, there is only one bus an hour, we live miles from our family. Our car is our only 'luxury', and yes we use it with care, walking as much as we can. kathlyn

I think Id need to understand how they are structuring this first before I decide against it - if it meant that those with no licence, tax, mot or insurance got nicked then it would be well worth it.