Fee to pass through your city centre

[Wee Kaz]

What do you think about people getting charged a fee to pass through your own city centre?

[cupra]

There's loads of pros and cons, but the big problem is that no one thinks off all the angles and someone always loses (local shops/traders etc.) - and do we get to find out where the revenue goes.....??? Next idea will be turnstiles for pedestrians - �2 to go shopping!

[mikewith]

My brother lives in Oslo where congestion charges were introduced a couple of years ago. It works brilliantly and no-one minds at all. People there seem to have realised that the car is not king, and more environmentally/ traffic-friendly transport answers exist. Buy ascooter or motorbike, folks, it's the only way to go.

[rekstout]

I think it's a great idea, I have family in Singapore and they have to pay an additional (optional) road tax to travel through the city centre and it works brilliantly. The only caveat should be that alternatives should be provided - i.e. a bypass or ring road, park and ride, trams etc and - as suggested - the money collected should be ring-fenced for investment in reducing congestion - could it also be used to compensate traders who lose out during the transitional period until public transport - and hence customer traffic - is back to original levels?

I own a place in central London which I use at weekends and have no problem - as an out-of-towner - to paying the proposed �5 per day congestion charge - I think residents should be discounted for their first vehicle though and some low-pay key workers exempted (but not tube drivers!).

[skelly]

Having just sat down after driving from Glasgow to Edinburgh town centre and back again I am now firmly in support of city centre road charges. The congestion in Edinburgh is horendous and that wasn't even during rush hour. Something needs to be done to restrict the amount of traffic in the town centre.

[andy hughes]

In commonwith a lot of good ideas - this hasn't been thought through. Cutting down car use - which as an idea that has singulalry failed thus far, even with prohibitive petrol price rises, and the reason is the dire failure of public transport to fill the gap. People aren't stupid - if there is a clean cheap efficient on-time public transport system around their cities, they will abandon their expensive cars, and expensive car parking. Surely the fact that this totally failed to even begin to happen indicates that public transport is a national joke. Get cheap clean efficient tranport into the cities, watch the commuter traffic disappear. It's not rocket science, but it will take time, and crucially, money, none of which are forthcoming from the Government.

[GeordieSteve]

I'm thinking about working in another country. This country is getting too expensive. Exactly how much do we all pay every year and exactly how much goes to the emergency services etc.