Bedford Driving Lessons

The war on the motorist is over, the Transport Secretary said yesterday on his first day in the job. Philip Hammond promised to end the way the country’s 33million drivers have been targeted by an array of speed cameras and cowboy clampers. He also pledged to ‘sweat the assets’ of the road, rail and aviation infrastructure to get value for money for taxpayers. The secretary of state pledged to scrap public funding for speed cameras and said he would consult on a plan to curb pump prices when oil prices soar Mr Hammond promised: ‘We will end the war on motorists. Motoring has got to get greener, but the car is not going to go away.’ The Tory Cabinet minister stressed the coalition government would abide by a Tory manifesto promise not to fund any more fixed-position speed cameras. Councils could fund them if they had the money and could justify their use – but the money raised would go to the Treasury, he said. He ruled out ‘pay as you drive’ charging for existing roads for the duration of the Parliament. And there are no plans to charge for the use of the hard shoulder or additional lanes built to existing roads. But Mr Hammond did back road tolls to pay for new roads – such as has already happened with the M6. He is also exploring electronic pay-as-you-drive charges for lorries – to ensure that foreign freight firms do not dodge the charges levied on UK companies. More