Action Briefing Jun 2003 - Jul 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Toll and trouble

The saga of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road and its by now infamous tolls has taken everyone's eyes off the real transport problem of the West Midlands - namely our addiction to using the private car wherever and whenever we like. As such, the M6 Toll Road is obsolete before it has even been opened.

Road user charging should cover the whole road network with a variable charging mechanism. Cars should be fitted with a satellite tracking meter, with tariffs varying according to the type of road used and time of day. These fairer charges would be balanced by a reduction in fuel duty and road tax - far more equitable than a one-charge toll.

Charges from road usage should be spent on improving all forms of mass transit and on creating better facilities for cyclists, pedestrians and the less able. We need to be raising awareness about the damage that our dependency on the private car is doing to the region’s health, economy, social fabric and environment.

The M6 Toll highlights the ruthlessness with which corporate globalisation is undermining the infrastructure and delivery of public services. Owners Macquarie are an Australian company with no real presence or identity in the West Midlands. Macquarie's now ex-Director of Infrastructure, Dennis Eagar's notorious comments to the Australian newspaper that the M6 Toll is effectively a "monopoly" and that "if [motorists] don't complain about [the prices] being too high, then we won't have done our job" are now well known.

Tolled you so!
Outraged truckers seem to have forgotten that, during the 1994-5 Public Inquiry, they and their trade associations refused to join those of us arguing for Government regulation of toll rates in the public interest. Instead, Secretary of State John Prescott gave up any powers to intervene in prices as part of the concession agreement with Midland Expressway Ltd. (MEL), effectively granting them a licence to print money at the expense of our countryside, economy and transport system. Such was the secrecy surrounding the agreement that it was not even made available to the Inspector at the Inquiry. Campaigners trying to get the terms of the concession into the public domain went as far as the High Court.

The Government would not accept that MEL might use toll rates to exclude lorries. Now there is a real danger that MEL will price off the most damaging vehicles to save on future maintenance bills and force the public to pick up the bill from general taxes as they continue to damage the wider public road network.

When it opens, the M6 Toll Road will be one of only three in the world with no government control over prices. This should be of concern to us all as it reveals how readily elected governments are handing over control of almost every area of our lives to big business interests.

James Botham, with thanks to Chris Crean