'No!'

'NO!'
David Pugh

'First, what is the Social Market Foundation? What political party or political viewpoint or does it promote? Ideas and surveys from so-called "think tanks" invariably reflect the narrow political thinking to which they are most closely allied.

'The general public has paid for our roads already many times over.

'In the mid-1970s, income from road taxation was only slightly higher than expenditure on roads; the differential nowadays is colossal.

'Currently 46 billion (or 5.25 million per hour) is extracted in road taxation; a mere 8 to 9 billion is spent on roads.

'Would the SMF care to explain into what black hole the difference between the two figures has gone? It isn't being spent on our roads.

'Far from the country being 'concreted over', we have a situation where Belgium and the Netherlands, (countries a sixth the size of the UK), have more motorways per square kilometre.

'The vast majority of traffic, especially freight, uses motorways and trunk roads, so it's no wonder congestion is caused when, over the past 10 years, a mere 200 miles of additional motorway has been provided for over a 30% increase in traffic levels.

'The SMF, or their political masters, have yet to explain or justify:
1.the cost of introducing road pricing;
2.intrusive surveillance technology required to operate such a system;
3.why the public have never been given the full facts on road pricing;
4.why the motorist has to fund general government expenditure but receive so, so little in return?'
Brian Macdowall