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North East to tackle congestion

Tyne and Wear and Durham City are two of nine areas across England to share £7.5 million to help develop innovative plans to tackle local congestion, Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander announced today.

The money comes from the second round of an £18 million fund set up in July 2005 in advance of the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). The TIF money can be used to improve public transport, offering alternatives to car use and more choice for the travelling public. Today’s new funding will support local authorities who are developing proposals for local pilot road pricing projects. These will help inform discussion on a national road pricing scheme, providing experience on the ground and ideas about how road pricing technology will work.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “Congestion has significant costs to the economy and environment, causes delay and frustration for motorists and it is forecast to get steadily worse over the next ten years. We must act now. “Road pricing has the potential to cut congestion by nearly half and we need to explore how well-designed schemes can help us with our congestion problems. We are clear that the first step on this path is helping local authorities to establish local pilot, which will inform our thinking on a national scheme. Today’s announcement is another step along that path.”

Durham and Tyne and Wear join several other areas also piloting schemes, including Shrewsbury, Manchester, and Cambridgeshire. The Government will work closely with these authorities on this developmental work. Mr Alexander said: “Today’s announcement brings to ten the number of areas across England giving serious consideration to local road pricing schemes. I am delighted with the work that the first seven have done to date, and was pleased that so many more authorities showed they are willing to engage with us in finding real solutions to their congestion problems.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .