The first online petition against road charging closed last night (20 February), having attracted just under 1.8 million signatures.
A new petition has already been put online, which you can sign by clicking here.
All 1,793,140 people who signed the original petition received an e-mail response from Prime Minister Tony Blair this morning.
While Blair does not rule out road pricing – not by any means - he is at pains to point out that it will not be a "stealth tax".
“Let me be clear straight away [he says, in the fifth paragraph of the letter]: we have not made any decision about national road pricing,” reads the e-mail. “Indeed we are simply not yet in a position to do so. We are, for now, working with some local authorities that are interested in establishing local schemes to help address local congestion problems.”
"Pricing is not being forced on any area, but any schemes would teach us more about how road pricing would work and inform decisions on a national scheme. And funds raised from these local schemes will be used to improve transport in those areas."
The e-mail ends by stating that "Before we take any decisions there would be further consultations. The public will, of course, have their say, as will Parliament."
Members of the public are encouraged to pose any questions they have to roads minister Stephen Ladyman by tomorrow, 22 February.
For more information, click here.
If you'd like to read the full text of Mr Blair's e-mail, it follows below.
E-petition: Response from the Prime Minister
The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to "Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy" has now closed. This is a response from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Thank you for taking the time to register your views about road pricing on the Downing Street website.
This petition was posted shortly before we published the Eddington Study, an independent review of Britain's transport network. This study set out long-term challenges and options for our transport network.
It made clear that congestion is a major problem to which there is no easy answer. One aspect of the study was highlighting how road pricing could provide a solution to these problems and that advances in technology put these plans within our reach. Of course it would be ten years or more before any national scheme was technologically, never mind politically, feasible.
That is the backdrop to this issue. As my response makes clear, this is not about imposing "stealth taxes" or introducing "Big Brother" surveillance. This is a complex subject, which cannot be resolved without a thorough investigation of all the options, combined with a full and frank debate about the choices we face at a local and national level. That's why I hope this detailed response will address your concerns and set out how we intend to take this issue forward. I see this email as the beginning, not the end of the debate, and the links below provide an opportunity for you to take it further.
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