'Labour is stepping up its war on motorists and it's going to hit plumbers, electricians and delivery drivers'
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Sir John Redwood was the Conservative MP for Wokingham from 1987 to 2024
Labour is stepping up its war on the motorist.
The new Transport Secretary likes the chaos her party created in Wales with its 20 mph speed limits and has told England's Councils they can do the same if they wish.
There will doubtless be more taxpayer money flung at local government to close roads, put in new cycle lanes on narrow main roads, take out lanes, restrict junctions, and install more bollards.
The plan is to terrify motorists with more instructions, signs, paint on the roads and cameras linked to cash machines to collect more fines for noncompliance.
They see a double win. Fewer cars and vans will venture out.
More cash will come in from drivers as more are stranded in traffic on a small part of a box junction, cross a bus lane marker to allow an emergency vehicle through or allow their speed to race up to 22 mph when the road is clear.
John Redwood said the blanket imposition of 20mph zones in Wales led to more congestion, delayed drivers and added to frustrations
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Labour in Wales angered many people by their blanket imposition of 20 mph zones.
Of course drivers need to proceed very slowly on residential roads where children might be playing, or near a school at arrival and leaving times for pupils.
Drivers need to observe pedestrian crossing rules.
What the Welsh government failed to understand was how crucial the van, truck and car are to our way of life and how important reasonable freedom of movement and timely journeys are to business.
Their various traffic restrictions cause more congestion, delay drivers and add to frustrations.
Many self-employed and small businesses need to get to their clients and customers by van. We all benefit from plumbers and electricians, delivery drivers and repairers being able to get to our homes.
If traffic is too congested and too slow they can fit in fewer of us. Some get fed up with too much of a working day spent in a traffic jam so they retire early or do something else.
Gardening, cleaning, caring, catering and many other businesses need good road access to work efficiently.
Many Councils see motorists as sources of easy money.
Council car parks get dearer and more are built on, reducing the number of spaces. Shoppers spend too much time driving around looking for a space and then spend too much money on parking after wrestling with their mobile phones to try to pay.
More abandon the idea of town centre shopping altogether and go to one of the large out-of-town shopping areas if available with plenty of free parking. We lose more of our varied pattern of smaller and specialist town shops as a result.
All the roads are under state control so there is no choice.
They offer a dreadful service, delight in digging them up and restricting their use, and in overcharging motorists through an array of motoring taxes and fines.
It is a prime example of how nationalised services mug the user and treat customers as a nuisance at best and as criminals at worst if drivers fall foul of arbitrary restrictions.
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The government says it is happier if people use battery cars, yet it still charges 20 per cent VAT on charging them away from home.
It will not tell us how it is going to replace the £25billion it currently rakes in from fuel duty if and when more people go electric.
Presumably they will then tax every driver for road use on some payment-per-mile scheme with even more universal camera surveillance and enforcement.
Given how desperate they are to spend more of our money they will not let the battery car owner off.
All of us may end up paying a mileage charge as well as they seek to drive people on lower incomes off the roads altogether.