In the Welsh Leaders debate on Tuesday and on CF99 last night the issue of the high price of petol arose. On both programmes the Liberal Democrats' representatives expressed sympathy for the difficulties caused to individuals and businesses because of rising fuel prices but neither mentioned their party's policy of road pricing.
According to this report on the BBC the Liberal Democrats want to charge road users between 8p and 12p for every mile that they travel on the roads.
Am I a cynic for suspecting that this reluctance to mention their policy on Welsh political programmes is because three of the seats being defended by the Liberal Democrats are in the most rural part of Wales where such a policy would be as popular as a rat sandwich?
The actual policy as set out in our manifesto is:
ReplyDeleteUndertake the preparations for the introduction of a system road pricing in a second parliament. Any such system would be revenue neutral for motorists, with revenue from cars used to abolish VED and reduce fuel duty, helping those in rural areas who have no alternatives to road travel. Some of the revenue from lorries would be used to fund further extensions of High Speed Rail through the UK Infrastructure Bank.
• Introduce a rural fuel discount scheme which would allow a reduced rate of fuel duty to be paid in remote rural areas, as is allowed under EU law.