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ENVIRONMENTALISTS today urged Scotland’s political leaders to explore the use of congestion charging to tackle Scotland’s transport problems.

Friends of the Earth said Scotland now needs to look at introducing road-user or congestion charging.

Duncan McLaren, Friends of the Earth’s chief executive, said: “Building new roads and bridges is not the answer. They will simply lead to more traffic and more congestion. We need a package of measures to get people out of their cars and on to safe, convenient and affordable alternatives. This means greater investment in public transport, safer streets for cycling and walking, better land-use planning, and a fair system of road-user or congestion charging.”

An Executive study concluded last year that road tolling was unlikely to be introduced in the near future.

Researchers said that a previous “no” vote on congestion charging in Edinburgh and the time and money that would be required to develop a workable national congestion charging scheme suggested that such schemes are only a distant possibility.

Mr McLaren said: “Those parties who opposed the congestion scheme proposed for Edinburgh said the scheme was not the right one.

“Well, now is the time for those parties to get out of the policy slow lane and set out what the right scheme would be - not just for Edinburgh, but for other locations suffering from congestion and pollution.”

The call follows proposals from the Liberal Democrats to cut motoring taxes in Scotland to speed up the introduction of pay-as-you drive road charging north of the Border if the scheme is delayed in England.

The move would involve an attempt to wrest control of vehicle tax - which could be abolished - and fuel duty - which might be reduced - from Westminster.

It follows Tavish Scott, the Scottish Executive’s Lib Dem transport minister, criticising the “glacial” progress of road charging and calling for faster progress in Scotland.

Mr Scott was yesterday reported as saying he expected a consensus in favour of such a tax switch among MSPs after the May election. He said charging should leave drivers no worse off - by having improved public transport alternatives in urban areas, and cheaper motoring in the countryside.

However, the tax move was ridiculed yesterday, with observers suggesting it could trigger hordes of English motorists crossing the Border to refuel.

The Scottish Executive said it backed a UK-wide charging scheme - which is expected to be proposed for the middle of the next decade - but has no plans to go it alone.

Drivers would be charged depending on the type of roads they used, congestion levels and the time of day, with an expected consequent cut in motoring taxes. The plans are at an early stage, with the government seeking pilot projects in English cities such as Manchester or Birmingham.

The Executive’s national transport strategy includes consideration of a pilot study in a “medium-size urban area” to see how road charging might work in Scotland.

However, Mr Scott downplayed the likelihood of such an experiment when he launched the strategy in December. He said: “Our judgment is a UK scheme is what is most likely to happen.”

Plans to charge motorists 2 a day to drive into Edinburgh were emphatically defeated in a referendum in 2005. PM TO E-MAIL A MILLION ROAD TOLL OPPONENTS

TONY Blair is to send an e-mail to the million-plus people who signed an online petition against road pricing, telling them it is “surely part of the answer”.

Mr Blair admitted he did not expect to win over critics of road pricing immediately, but said that the petition - on the 10 Downing Street website - had provoked a useful debate.

The strength of feeling against road charging plans reached such levels that, at one point, it crashed the PM’s internet site. The petition calls the policy “sinister and wrong” and warns the charge would be unfair to those living away from their families and poorer people.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, has accused its organisers of spreading “myths” and pledged to press ahead with plans to pilot the scheme.

Peter Roberts, 46, an account manager from Telford who started the petition, said he was “staggered” by the response and called for a meeting with government officials.

The petition appears on a section of Downing Street’s website designed to allow anyone to address and deliver a petition directly to Mr Blair.

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