'This is road pricing by the back door'

'Have we learned nothing? Privatisation of utilities and railways has been an unmitigated disaster.

'Every privatised company seems to end up owned by the public sector of foreign countries. The German and Dutch state railways own large chunks of what was British Railways, electricity and water companies are owned by the French public sector and we are reliant on Gazprom the Russians, for goodness' sake for our gas.

'In all cases, investment has gone down while prices have gone through the roof. There has been little or no investment in the UK's electricity infrastructure and we are now in real danger of shortages within the next 10 years. Despite this, the utility companies are making massive profits and costs to consumers have rocketed.

'Do we want this for our road network as well? Surely not!
Paul Hampson

'This is road pricing by the back door. On no account would I support it. It's another ploy of disgusting political vultures circling over the already decomposing corpse of the motorist.

'They won't be satisfied until they pick the bones clean.'
Brian Lewis

'How, pray, are they going to assess, administer and collect the 10p a mile charge?

'Road pricing, whether it be by a massive network of cameras or enforced installation of spy modules in vehicles, will cost billions a year, whereas the current system of levying tax on petrol costs virtually nothing, and provides us with an automatic, unavoidable road charge, congestion charge and pollution charge all in one.

'Its only drawback, from a politician's point of view, is its transparency'.
Dave Marriott