Some people think they own the road... AND THEY DO!

[Mookistar]

Originally Posted by Eikichi

There you go

Vehicles affected | Transport for London

if red Ken gets re-elected, rest assused the "criteria" will change!

mook

[Snowfiend]

Originally Posted by Mookistar
London Low Emission Zone signs have just cropped up in my town


Yep there's one popped up near me now too, wondered what it was !

[R33_GTS-t]

Originally Posted by StuOx

The Government is the Queen's Government. That's why when a new PM is elected, he (or she) goes to see the monarch to ask for permission to form a government. Technically all power belongs to the Monarch, and the Government acts on their behalf. The Queen could get involved in something as mundane as road taxing (or indeed anything else), but the Royal Prerogative is generally reserved for slightly more critical situations.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. All the Queen’s powers of land seizure etc. were removed early this century. The permission for government is just a cultural formality held for the sake of tradition.

Regardless of all this technical niff-naff, our money, and that of our parents, and their parents, paid for the roads to be built and maintained. So unless we live in a communist state, we have part ownership of that infrastructure and land that we have paid for. I’m afraid the government can’t side-step the accusation of communism by pretending that the Queen owns the roads. “She did it.”

You seem to be continuously determined to make increasingly ridiculous excuses for the government. Brownie points are no guarantee of a pay rise next year.

I for one am not happy to see myself forced off an infrastructure that I’ve put considerable money into (£20,000 in fuel duty and road tax alone not allowing for inflation, interest, increased asset value etc.) by a taxation and pricing scheme that is unaccountable, non-auditable and entirely disproportionate to the cost of the service. What’s more, non-payment of such taxes shouldn’t even be a criminal matter. Non-payment of services is a civil matter in every other arena. I don’t see the fact that I pay the wages of the operators as an excuse to escalate non-payment to a criminal matter.

[anthonymcgrath]

Theres the problem isn't it - the government say "ooh stay off the roads they're too busy" but they know everyone needs a motor nowadays so they sting all motorists every way they can with taxes and charges and know we HAVE to pay it if we're to keep the convenience.
None of us are gonna stand together and go 'grr we're not paying up' - we'd just get the riot police on us then arrested and no-one wants that as they still have work to go to so they can pay bills and feed the kids.
Doesn't matter who owns the road - the government really does own us and they've even found a way to tax air in a roundabout way of pushing the "green culture".
Unless we all give up the cars and start cycling nowts gonna change. okay maybe thats a bit of an extreme but my point is we'd SERIOUSLY hit the government in the pocket if that ever happened. We'd be the ones deciding what things cost after that :/

[R33_GTS-t]

Originally Posted by anthonymcgrath

Theres the problem isn't it - the government say "ooh stay off the roads they're too busy" but they know everyone needs a motor nowadays so they sting all motorists every way they can with taxes and charges and know we HAVE to pay it if we're to keep the convenience.
None of us are gonna stand together and go 'grr we're not paying up' - we'd just get the riot police on us then arrested and no-one wants that as they still have work to go to so they can pay bills and feed the kids.
Doesn't matter who owns the road - the government really does own us and they've even found a way to tax air in a roundabout way of pushing the "green culture".
Unless we all give up the cars and start cycling nowts gonna change. okay maybe thats a bit of an extreme but my point is we'd SERIOUSLY hit the government in the pocket if that ever happened. We'd be the ones deciding what things cost after that :/

So unless we give up nothing's going to change? Seems a little ridiculous.

As a nation we pay the same amount of fuel duty per year as the US, despite having less people, and doing less miles per person. We also have far fewer miles of road network to maintain.

Where is the money? Where are the roads? I want a bloody audit.

Take people off the road and, once again reduce their freedom of movement. Every single policy of this government has been to reduce freedom. Not one single policy they've introduced has increased freedom. They are trying to build a prison.

[anthonymcgrath]

Originally Posted by R33_GTS-t

So unless we give up nothing's going to change? Seems a little ridiculous.

As a nation we pay the same amount of fuel duty per year as the US, despite having less people, and doing less miles per person. We also have far fewer miles of road network to maintain.

Where is the money? Where are the roads? I want a bloody audit.

Take people off the road and, once again reduce their freedom of movement. Every single policy of this government has been to reduce freedom. Not one single policy they've introduced has increased freedom. They are trying to build a prison.

great points esp. the lack of audit and the reducing freedom stuff. I posted up the previous thoughts as I think it would be an awesome way to sting em in their pocket as trying to get any info from them esp. something like an audit is just never gonna happen - though that sed the reds are putting themselves in some serious pickles financially of late - some ppl getting careless in their jobs to line their own pockets but thats politics I guess and then you can get a really well paid job post-mp/pm just like Blair has done!
agreed - would be nice to see whats happening with all the money. Just not gonna happen

[stu0x]

Originally Posted by Andy W

they seem to be giving out plenty around Brighton to cars parked on the public highway

Really? That's interesting. I guess they've got some sort of agreement with the local council then. Presumably they've sold the rights to 'traffic warden' to the private sector, and NCP was the highest bidder, as it were.

Originally Posted by Eikichi

Given the state of the French economy, working for the government gives you
- job security, no matter what happens
- work less hours (lazy way)
- work less years compared to the private sector in order to go to retirement

And I think 60% is exagerated


From a "foreigner" POV, the Queen (was taught the same at school) is just there to look nice as only your PM have real power.
But it's so true that the UK are so good at taxing on anything...

I'm not disputing the logic of working for the government in France - I'm saying it explains the massive differences in their working practices. The last figure I heard was a few years ago, and it was something like 57% - either employed directly in public sector posts or indirectly by organisations linked to or subsidised by the government. Staggering, really.

The Queen ultimately holds the power (hence the Royal Prerogative), but you're right that in modern times she doesn't really exercise it. Old Charlie put paid to all that.

Originally Posted by anthonymcgrath

Unless we all give up the cars and start cycling nowts gonna change.

That's what I did. I even listen to Rage Against the Machine on occasion whilst I'm doing it. Fight the Man!

[Jason abz]

Am i missing something ? I thought the roads were subject to audits like every other regional / local council department? The roads are no different? I seem to see plenty regional transport wagons kicking about fixing the roads or in the case of the A90, it was subcontracted to Bear.....all accountable and can be audited at any time.....how else would they create a budget or tender a contract etc.

[R33_GTS-t]

Originally Posted by Jason abz

Am i missing something ? I thought the roads were subject to audits like every other regional / local council department? The roads are no different? I seem to see plenty regional transport wagons kicking about fixing the roads or in the case of the A90, it was subcontracted to Bear.....all accountable and can be audited at any time.....how else would they create a budget or tender a contract etc.

The subcontractors may be auditable but what's lacking is an overall audit of where our road and fuel tax (and congestion charges for Londoners) goes. Everyone knows that it doesn't all go on the road, but what percentage does and where does the rest of it go? To a certain extent I'm guessing but if I were to suggest that a single digit percentage of it actually went on the roads, I reckon I wouldn't be far wrong.

[Smokey 1]

Originally Posted by R33_GTS-t

The subcontractors may be auditable but what's lacking is an overall audit of where our road and fuel tax (and congestion charges for Londoners) goes. Everyone knows that it doesn't all go on the road, but what percentage does and where does the rest of it go? To a certain extent I'm guessing but if I were to suggest that a single digit percentage of it actually went on the roads, I reckon I wouldn't be far wrong.

Whilst driving up the A10 I have noticed some cones on the bridges and an imposed 40mph zone. The big blue sign Read's Bridge Repairs, every time I go over the bridge which is part of a roundabout there is no cu£t working on improving the bridge. In fact there are three fat dosser's with there asses hanging out of there jeans smoking roll ups doing **** all. Each county council is awarded x amount's of monies to improve there roads and half of it is spent on back hander's and blag's, the other half on speed bumps. I t is a dam shame that our country is run like this but on the other hand we could live somewhere else. The local council are lining there pockets the same way as they did when Robin of Sherwood was around and it was and is the poor folk of England that shall burden the cost.


Smokey