From the Argus

Next we'll be paying congestion charges

Sooner or later, probably sooner, Brighton and Hove residents will have
to pay congestion charges.

The road fund licence does not pay for roads, as its name suggests, so
"road tax dodgers" have as much right to drive on a road as any other
tax-payer, including cyclists, skateboarders and rollerbladers who, as
yet, do not have any clearly-defined means of safely travelling without
avoiding parked cars.

Catch 22. The intriguing thing is the privately-owned company (NCP)
which patrols our streets dishing out fines also owns many of the
city's car parks, which happen to be in the city centre.

So how do tax-paying motorists avoid traffic jams and congestion
charges when they have to drive in?

Public transport, you say. Where is it at 4am when the clubs kick out
and the parties end? Are taxis considered public transport? Perhaps
walking is, too? Perhaps it could all be named movement tax.

What happens if NCP decides it no longer wants the job? Imagine the
chaos of a parking attendants' strike.

Nope, things would be exactly the same as they always were.

-D de la Hoyde, Brighton
--
Alan (Fred) Pipes
pipes@...
www.fred-pipes.com
NUJ member since 1975