Sir – As is so often the case with the cyclist lobby, the latest missive from Chris Day (Letters, October 25) regarding “road tax”, has the all too familiar stink of “sweat and righteousness” about it.
Just because the Government changed the name from Road Tax to Vehicle Excise Duty and incorporated it into general taxation does not mean that everyone is paying it.
Consider this — ever since the earliest motor cars set out along the first stretch of Tarmac, cash-strapped governments have had one overwhelming desire: to fleece the drivers. First up was a road fund to be underpinned by taxes on vehicles. The money raised was to be devoted entirely to the upkeep and construction of roads. Fat chance! Within a few years, the Exchequer started to raid the fund, thereby blurring the link between what motorists paid and the roads they got in return. Very soon road taxes became just another way of raising money for general expenditure. The pretence of a road fund was dropped and, as you admitted in your own letter, Mr Day: “… the end of the ring-fencing of this money for road building and maintenance was enshrined in law by the Finance Act of 1936”. All road users should be prepared to contribute to the construction, maintenance and improvement of the road transport system and the cycling lobby should not seek exemption from this.
There is, however, a delicious irony behind road tax based on emissions. In reality, revenue is forecast to stagnate or decline because drivers, at the behest of the Government, are switching to low-carbon emission vehicles which attract a lower tax.
So, having encouraged people to do their bit for the environment and abandon their gas-guzzlers, the Treasury now finds the money is drying up. So, Mr Day, your wish may soon be granted whereby funding for roads comes from general taxation where cyclists, like it or not, will be contributing to the infrastructure they use.
John Clapton, Kennington
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