24-01-2006, 03:48 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Uber Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Woking
Posts: 31,183
Party: Libertarian Party
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UKIP Transport Spokesman demands EU take action on tolls
http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=1858
Quote:
UKIP Deputy Leader and Transport Spokesman, Mike Nattrass MEP, is to raise the issue of the tolls on the Dartford Crossing in the European Parliament.
Mr Nattrass, who represents the West Midlands, is a member of the Parliament’s transport committee and will raise the issue at committee meetings this week attended by both UK Transport Minister Alastair Darling MP and EU Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot.
Mr Nattrass said that he would demand to know why the EU has failed to take action over a clear breach of its own legislation, and why the British Government continued to flout legislation it had supported. He added that, to his certain knowledge, a formal complaint over the illegality of the tolls had been made to the European Commission’s Directorate General Transport in 2001 and which has simply been buried.
“Motorists across the country are constantly treated as a cash cow by a Government which is clearly prepared to break the law if it means it can extract a few extra pounds in stealth taxes. It is issues like this which highlight the contempt with which both our own Government in Westminster and the unelected bureaucrats in Brussels treat voters across Europe. Local residents in Kent and Essex are not just being financially penalised, but are also expected to live with the health consequences of the serious pollution caused.
“It is an object lesson in European ‘democracy’ that, when the Commission was given an opportunity to act in the public good, it instead has dragged its heels, while the British government and its sub-contractors rake in the cash.”
Background Notes
The campaign against the Dartford Thurrock Crossing tolls was launched via the website at www.scrapthetolls.com on the 2nd December 2005, although UKIP has campaigned on the issue since 2001. Since 2nd December, the website has received over 65,000 hits, with over 1,200 people signing up to support the campaign.
UKIP Director of Communications and Dartford resident, Mark Croucher, complained to the Directorate General Transport in Brussels in 2001 that the tolling regime was inconsistent with EU legislation. To date, no substantive response has been received.
The question to the European Transport Commissioner is below:-
Question for Committee on Transport and Tourism
25th January 2006 to Commissioner Barrot (Transport)
1) Why has M. Barrot failed to take action against the UK Government for its breach of Directive 99/62 on the charging of goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures in relation to its blatant breach with respect to the Dartford/Thurrock crossing.
2) Furthermore, to ask M Barrot why DG Transport has taken in excess of four years to investigate a complaint of said breach by a local resident in Dartford and has failed to respond to repeated correspondence.
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Yeah, UK Transport spokesman!
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