Chancellor’s road charge plan ‘may deter drivers’

Government plans for another tolled motorway could backfire, the AA has warned.

Chancellor George Osborne will is predicted to announce a new 14-mile M4 relief road near Newport in South Wales for which drivers might pay tolls.

The stretch would be the UK’s second toll motorway– after the 27-mile M6 Toll around Birmingham.

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The M4 plan is believed to be part of a major road announcement by Mr Osborne in his spending review in June.

AA president Edmund King yesterday said that M4 improvements were welcome but introducing tolls could deter drivers.

He added: “We have seen with the M6 Toll that drivers can be turned off by the imposition of charges.

“There is already a toll to get into Wales on the Severn Crossing but no toll to get out. There is no doubt that the M4 around Newport needs improving. At the moment if there is a bad accident and the road is closed there is no real alternative for drivers. But if the road is tolled it reduced its economic effectiveness as a lot of people will be put off using it and will simply avoid it.”

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An M4 relief road has been proposed before but was dropped on cost grounds. Other schemes Mr Osborne is looking at include improvements to the A303 – the road past Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

Other projects may include making all the section of the A1 north of Newcastle dual carriageway and improvements to the A47 in Norfolk.

Mr King said: “Bits of the A1 north of Newcastle are dual carriageway and bits are single carriageway. It certainly needs dualling although the Highways Agency has pointed out that traffic flows are far less heavy than those south of Newcastle.

“The A47 in Norfolk is an accident black spot so improvements there would be welcome.”

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A spokesman for sustainable transport organisation Sustrans in Wales, said: “Investing in new roads is not the answer to congestion. The new M4 relief road is poor value for money – costing taxpayers more than £55m each year and following the recent announcement of £8m in cuts to our bus service.”