GONEGESTION; Hoon: Road pricing stuck in hi-tech jam.

Byline: BOB ROBERTS

NATIONAL road pricing plans have ground to a halt, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon admitted yesterday.

The minister said there was no immediate prospect of using technology to charge drivers by the mile - once a flagship policy of the Government under Tony Blair.

Mr Hoon said: "I think we're still a long way short of having roadpricing in the United Kingdom.

"If we ever decide on introducing such a policy, we have to be sure it works."

More than 1.8 million people signed an online petition against the original hated plans - dubbed "a poll tax on wheels" - to charge drivers using satellite tracking.

And the Mirror's No to the Toll Tax campaign, led by columnist Richard Hammond, won huge backing. Many motorists objected to the intrusive nature of the proposed big brother-style technology, and the Transport Secretary yesterday agreed vehicle tracking raised privacy issues.

Mr Hoon said the Government was still looking at the methods which might be used to charge drivers in an effort to ease congestion and fight pollution.

But went on: "I just don't think the debate is mature enough or the technology is mature enough to start this. I want to see the evidence before I'm willing to take a decision." In 2004, under Mr Blair, the Government committed itself to road pricing across the UK.

The plan was to put a satellite tracking device in every car and then charge people by the mile for how far they drive.

But in December proposals for a congestion charge in Greater Manchester were defeated in a referendum by a margin of nearly four to one.

Mr Hoon's rejection of a nation-widsystem of road tolls puts Britain at odds with the European Union.

Jos Delbeke, from the European Commission's environment department, said last week Brussels wants a major push on road tolls, insisting Europe had done much to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing industries and power generators.

But emissions from transport have gone up 35 per cent since 1990 as trade across Europe boomed and borders came down.

He said: "I'm very much in favour of the principle of polluter pays, for example road tolls, which can be done electronically to make them much easier for the user."

When pushing for road pricing, ministers said there were six million more cars on the road than when Labour came to office in 1997 and there will be millions more over the next 20 years.

CAPTION(S):

HALT Manchester turned down tolls