Who should pay for our roads

by polglase

07 Jul 2011

The damage imposed on a kerb by the 8 ton axle of a Heavy Goods Vehicle is 65,500 times that of the half ton axle of the average car, and the overall infrastructure cost of HGVs is 10,000 that of light vehicles. Unfortunately, so few citizens study Statics and Dynamics as to make these figures questionable and for many arguments, based on fact, to be dismissed offhand. An analogous situation, known to all parents, would to be punched in the face by a small baby weighing say 10 pounds, it happens everday. Now imagine being punched in the face by a fit twelve stone man. Mass (weight), acceleration and deceleration come into the calculation of assessing the damage that can be inflicted by a baby, a boxer, an HGV or a small car. To pay the annual £20 billion total costs (Replacing and Repairing) roads to a reasonable standard would require an average annual Road Fund Tax of £39,000 from HGVs and £40 from cars and light vans. The link between the cost and usage of public highways was broken by Winston Churchill in 1926. More than half the vehicles on our roads are now moving edible goods. We have recently learnt that through clever marketing (BOGOFFs), unnecessary packaging and date-stamping that half of all UK food is dumped. It is unfortunate that private shareholders no longer have any say in the running of large corporations who have the backing of Law in Modern Economies to externalise the costs of their enterprise. In other words corporations use their financial and political clout to make sure that the taxpayer/customer picks up the tab for them ruining the environment, including potholes. Hence Heavy Goods Vehicles were paying a significant contribution of £5,000 to £6,000 Road Fund Licence until the turn of the millennia, but achieved a reduction to just £1,000 since the year 2000 by demanding a link only to the emisssions of very efficient diesel engines but with no regard to the other societal costs such as fairly contributing to the roads.



David Polglase

Upper Chipmans

North Petherwin

LAUNCESTON

PL15 8LR

Ph 01566-785509

Mob 07875 783384