Daily Telegraph - 'Pay as you drive back on Ministers' agenda'

Dear Sir,

Your article asserting that the Government is pressing ahead with national road pricing is wrong.

People have legitimate concerns about any widespread road pricing and we have been absolutely clear that these would need to be fully addressed before any decisions are taken. We're a very long way from that point, so our priority now and over the next decade is on tackling congestion where it is most a problem in our cities and on our motorways.

That is why we are looking at opening up the hard shoulder of motorways to traffic at busy times and why, to help local authorities with their thinking on local congestion charging, we will be running voluntary technology trials. To suggest that appointing the companies to run these trials - which we announced to Parliament last month - means that national road pricing is going ahead is nonsense.

Tom Harris MP
Rail Minister