Ea of Dune

I've been having this discussion a lot recently so thought I'd see what you folks thought.

Which of the options would you prefer?

Westcountryman

Reduce road tax so that it only pays for local roads (A, B etc). Put tolls on motorways.

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Earthling

Abolish road tax and have funding from central pot, we have the most expensive country when it comes to motoring there is no excuse for it

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harryaldridge

I would actually be very happy with good old fashioned tolls on motorways, with road tax going to fund other roads. It is fairly crude but I am sure would discourage people from heading for the motorways as they do now. The psycological affect would be greater than anything.

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John Connor

Abolish road tax. I believe it was only invented as a way of showing you have insurance and valid MOT - i.e. no licence disc, no insurance, no MOT - and was intended to be a nominal admin payment.
Fund roads from the central pot. Or fuel tax. The existing fuel tax, not extra. What the hell are they doing with all that fuel tax money anyways? Buying mosquito nets for Africa?

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John Connor

And if they're not going to abolish it, at least have it on "amount of road used", not CO2 emissions. Pretty sure my 4.7L Jeep @ 3,000 miles per year is doing less damage to the roads and causing less congestion than a 1.8L Mondeo @ 50,000 MPY (the Mondeo, incidentally, has a larger physical footprint on the road).

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There are three types of people in this world: Libertarians, fascists and those who haven't been paying attention.
Russia: The largest tax haven on the planet. Which annoys the US a tad since they believe that they won the Cold War.

Users on ignore list: Akria, Besoeker, Clippo, david H, Ian C.

Ea of Dune

Maybe subsidising BAe Systems to the tune of thirteen grand per employee a year so they can sell planes back to the countries we bought oil from...

Ea of dune

mkpdavies

Combination of Fuel tax and tolls for private roads.

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Besoeker

Been here before.
Connor makes a good point about the road fund licence being based on a vehicle's CO2 emissions. It is daft to administer a fixed charge, regardless of road use

It seems to me that the fairest means of charging is fuel duty.
The more use you make of the roads, the more fuel you use, and the more duty you pay
If that use is in a heavier, more powerful vehicle, probably harder on the roads, you use more fuel, you pay more per mile of road use.
Doubtless it is not perfect, but fuel duty is probably as simple and equitable as it can be.

But it needs to reflect the cost of the road network rather than just a means of revenue collection.




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Millennium3

I would go with part of fuel duty - most fair.