The petition against road pricing on the Prime Minister's own website has now received well over a million signatures, and has resulted in an undertaking from transport secretary Douglas Alexander to "listen to opponents of the introduction of UK road charging". Alexander made the promise on Radio 4's Today programme this morning.
The petition - "We the undersigned petition
the Prime Minister to scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy" - has been gathering signatures steadily since it was posted at the end of last year, but has received so much publicity in the past week that it now has more than 1,130,000 signatures - making it by far the most successful petition of its kind.
Peter Roberts of Telford, Shropshire, who posted the petition, has added this note:
The idea of tracking every vehicle at all times is sinister and wrong. Road pricing is already here with the high level of taxation on fuel. The more you travel - the more tax you pay. It will be an unfair tax on those who live apart from families and poorer people who will not be able to afford the high monthly costs. Please Mr Blair - forget about road pricing and concentrate on improving our roads to reduce congestion.
You can listen to
the Today interview with Douglas Alexander here.
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