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Petitiion to stop 'Pay As You Go' Driving

149 replies

Radley · 14/02/2007 08:39

Hi All

Please read the below and act upon it asap - deadline is 20 February...

Subject: Tax on Cars

Radio 2 talked about the proposed Road Pricing 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 the comments only 250,000 people have signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it. 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.

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 Stay at home 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.

petition

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 09:27

I'm going to petition to get Gordon Brown out of office at the general election by voting against him.

eleusis · 14/02/2007 09:28

Go Expat.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 09:29

Look at the bureaucratic nightmare that is Tax Credits. Instead of just increasing the threshhold at which income is taxed, we get this nightmare.

Now imagine that same nightmare following you to work every day.

Spot on eleusis on Wed 14-Feb-07 09:26:24!

Cloudhopper · 14/02/2007 09:30

Couldn't agree more expat.

"Keep it simple stupid" is obviously something Gordon Brown's education didn't impart to him.

eleusis · 14/02/2007 09:34

Now, IF they were to take all of the revenue from this system and give it to the public transport system for upgrades to the system, increased trains, tie it to schedule inprovements, and so on... then I could at least see that they did have green intentions. But, where is this moeny going to go? Elsewhere I bet. So it isn't green at all, simply an excuse to raise revenue and tax people going to work.

And you know who I think gets it the worst? WOrking mums. Like she's going to do the cchildcare/school run and then go to work on the train? Have you ever taken a young child on the train in rush hour? How about more than one? And these comments apply to the fricken congestion charge as well.

eleusis · 14/02/2007 09:36

oops, I meant to say single working mums get it the worst.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 09:39

Let us not forget, too, how expensive housing has become in the past 10 years.

MANY people cannot afford to live near their work, so are forced to commute in.

Yes, it'd be nice if we could all find work near where we live, but everyone knows how often that occurs.

So where's the public transport? The forcing employers to stagger work times and offer more work-from-home options?

ComeOVeneer · 14/02/2007 09:41

I agree with it in principal, but like others are saying, I would like to see some proactive suggestions from them with regards to what they are going to do to make things better rather than simply taking our money. It will reduce the amount of car usage simply because there will be people who can't afford it, however it doesn't instill responsibility to the planet. Basically if you have money you can continue to abuse the planet.

Aloveheart · 14/02/2007 09:43

signed it i don't drive but i know alot who do. i don't believe in it at all.

Cloudhopper · 14/02/2007 09:49

We live in a congested, rainy and miserably cold country where school places and work get progressively harder to achieve near your home.

Parking charges are already effectively a tax on going anywhere. I pay 1.00 just to park outside the doctors for 30 minutes.

If they were committed to decreasing congestion, they would not have put train fares up by inflation busting amounts in recent years.

Besides, commuter trains are about as congested as they could get without riots.

3LoveHeartsAndNoMore · 14/02/2007 10:01

I will sign the petition....as I don't think that it is the right way around it....thre needs to be better and cheaper public transport , I think THAT would encourage more people to use their car less...until that is done, this will drive the poorer of the road, whilest the people with money will be, as usually, able to do as they like...
I am for the environment and we GOT to do something about it, of cuorse...btu this is not the way forward!

Cloudhopper · 14/02/2007 10:02

I think everyone agrees that driving is a bad thing, and in my experience will support any measure that stops "other people" from being on the roads, while preserving their own rights.

lulumama · 14/02/2007 12:09

might be an impetus for local car sharing / pooling schemes......which is a good thing, regardless of whether this comes into force or not

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 12:15

I signed the petition, in addition to using power at the polls come May!

Exercise your right to vote, people!!!

lulumama · 14/02/2007 12:16

wise words expat,,amazing how many people still don;t vote, because they think it won;t make a difference.....

if everyone who didn;t vote, for that reason, voted, it would make a massive difference !

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 12:25

My dad used to tell us, 'You can't complain if you didn't vote.'

poppiesinaline · 14/02/2007 12:26

We are a one car family. DH uses the train to get to work and pays nearly £2000 a year for the priviledge of waiting hours for trains and tubes that are consistently running late.

I cycle the school run with 3 children and rarely use the car. The car tends to be used for leisure at the weekends. If this use scheme was introduced.. we could not afford to take the kids out at the weekends and they and we as a family would lose out.

I do not like the thought that someone will know where I am due to the tracking device.

lulumama · 14/02/2007 12:50

i do agree to a certain extent expat, if you can;t be bothered voting , you do forfeit some right to whinge about the state of the country !

clumsymum · 14/02/2007 12:58

Can I just point out that congestion charging doesn't only cost you money, but more importantly

IT RECORDS WHERE YOU (or at least your car) HAS BEEN AT SPECIFIC TIMES.

Now you may think I'm being paranoid, but I am aware of a number of ways in which the government is becoming aware of our actions and movements. This is just one more way.

Most people think, "so what, I've nothing to hide?"
But one day you might have something to hide (such as attending a political rally against the government). By then the measures will be in place.

So my objection to these congestion charging schemes is as much to do with freedom of movement.

Fillyjonk · 14/02/2007 13:01

but seriously

they won't know where you are, they will always know where your car is.

Given cars are quite dangerous really and kill many more people a year than, say, guns, this seems quite reasonable to me.

Driving is bascially pretty anti-social. It causes environmental and health damage.

I reckon if you want to drive, you take the consequences.

Yes it affects some groups more. That is a problem. But in many cases they are also groups that would benefit from better community, better public transport, more safety for kids etc.

Fillyjonk · 14/02/2007 13:02

and clumsy, believe me, I have never never attended a political rally by car and I've been to loads

You go in a smelly coach and listen to bad music. Its de rigour.

OrmIrian · 14/02/2007 13:03

Isn't funny how so many people suddenly becme political when it directly affects them . I think in principle it's a good idea but maybe it needs some fine tuning to give people in rural areas a bit more leeway.

Something has to be done. This is just one idea.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 13:08

K, Filly, if you want to drive.

What if you have have to b/c your low-paid, crap job is the only one you could get that offered you part-time hours you need due to childcare concerns.

And it has no bus service.

You have to live miles away from your work in a semi-rural/rural area b/c it's what you can afford.

And you work low-paid tourist industry job in a hotel.

They want you to work till, say, midnight.

No bus.

Or you're a crap paid nurse or midwife at a major hospital. Who, as an NHS employee, works rotating shifts and commutes in b/c you can't afford to live nearby - which is also a bad neighbourhood in our city.

How are you supposed to get to work?

eleusis · 14/02/2007 13:11

Really, Expat. You are being greedy. What you need is a horse.

expatinscotland · 14/02/2007 13:13

So true!

Maybe if the entire community gets together, what with everyone coming and going out of the thousands of buy-to-let flats in our area (what with short-assured tenancies you see a lot of people having to move after 6 months when their landlord sells up) we can form a human bus and get everyone to work at all hours.

Only lazy, anti-social killers use cars, after all.