1000s ‘will escape road toll charges’

THOUSANDS of drivers would escape paying under the council’s road tolls plans because it will be impossible to trace everyone who refuses to pay, a leading motoring organisation warned today.

The council is looking at using roadside cameras to record the licence plates of vehicles so that it can trace and fine those who do not pay.

But the system would rely on the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency tracing the owners of the cars involved - something it cannot do in up to one in 12 cases, the agency admitted today.

The weakness in the system means many drivers will get off scot free, while others face getting strings of tickets they have not clocked up, the Automobile Association warned today.

Neil Greig, head of motoring policy at the AA, said: "One of our main concerns is that a large number of people will get away without paying. We are also concerned that people who haven’t been making journeys into the city will get multiple fines.

"There are many cases of this with speeding and parking fines. This is one of the fundamental concerns we have on the issue of congestion charging. It all depends on how good the DVLA are and they have a rather old and creaking computer system. The DVLA are in the process of updating their system, but we think they should be given a lot more money to do it by the Government."

The cameras planned by the city council would record the registration number of every car that passes a pay cordon, either at the city centre or on the edge of the city.

Drivers would have to either pre-pay for a set number of trips in advance or do so within a set space of time at various pay points, such as post offices, across the city.

All the registration numbers would then be checked to see that the driver had paid.

The number of any who had not would then be passed on to the DVLA to trace the owner so that they could be fined.

But the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has admitted that in up to one in 12 cases it cannot trace the vehicle owners. It is suggested that the road tolls would be up and running by 2006, providing the city council decides to press ahead with the scheme, following a public consultation exercise.

The charges would apply from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday,

With a 2 charge, an estimated 1.5 billion could be raised over a 15-year period. The money would be used to fund public transport improvements. But if drivers cannot be identified then they would escape the charge, resulting in a potential loss of millions of pounds for the council.

Councillor Andrew Burns, the city’s transport leader, said that he expected the technology to be much improved by 2006.

He said: "The scheme in London will be active from next February which means it will have been up and running for three-and-a-half years by then.

"Lessons will have been learned and I am confident that the DVLA will have technology in place by then to ensure that their records are accurate."

But councillor Allan Jackson, Tory transport spokesman, said that his party was "totally opposed" to toad toll charges. He added: "This is another nail in the coffin of the Labour party’s flagship plans to get people to pay to drive in their own city."