Road-pricing debate

'Keepmoving.co.uk' is hosting a debate between Green Party Principal Speaker, Dr. Derek Wall, and Peter Roberts who launched the previous Downing Street petition on the issue of road pricing.

Photo: poster from war years

'Road Pricing - Mean or Green?' asks viewers to comment and vote, once they have read the different sides of the argument. Dr Wall talks of the need to wean ourselves off petrol, and asks what London would taste like on a hot summers night were it not for the congestion charge.

As I've noted (see blog on 13th Feb 2006) as part of a joined up policy framework that makes it easier to be green, road pricing will work. Without such a framework it will be unlikely to succeed but the ostrich approach of doing nothing will lead to huge environmental costs and slower journeys.

Dr Wall writes: "Any attempt to replace Jeremy Clarkson as patron saint of our green and pleasant land will lead to controversy. Yet the growth in car use in Britain is simply unsustainable. Transport contributes a fifth of greenhouse gases..."

To read more, view the debate, and vote, please see www.driversvoice.co.uk/debate.php