Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Pay as you drive: On the way
Wednesday 23rd May 2007, 5:00PM BST.
Pay as you go driving is set to become a reality on roads in the West Midlands.
It could mean monthly bills dropping on doorsteps, charging up to £1.50 a mile for driving on the region’s main roads.
Today the Express & Star reveals the reality of the road tolls system, set to be outlined within two months and in place within a few years.
A new Government bill will give councils like Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Manchester the power to set up road-pricing schemes as they see fit.
But Staffordshire County Council has no plans to get involved.
The council’s cabinet member for economic prosperity and sustainable communities Councillor John Wakefield said road charging would have no benefit for Staffordshire – and warned that it could even damage the economic advantage of the county.
The tolls would be deeply unpopular with motorists and drive up costs for businesses in the region, threatening jobs.
George Munro, a director of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is a tax on the ordinary working man.
“Around 20-30 years ago the working man went to a big factory on the bus. We don’t have those large factories any more. People have to travel to workplaces scattered all over the region and public transport simply cannot get them there.
“People have to go out and look for jobs and the last thing they need is to be charged for getting to and from their place of work.
“Road users are already one of the highest taxed groups in the country. The Treasury taxes over £42 billion a year from road users and spends just £1.6 billion on trunk roads and motorways.
“It seems a bit much to ask the people of the Black Country to pay even more for these roads and the transport infrastructure that we have got at the moment.”
Seven councils in the West Midlands – Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Solihull and Coventry – have been working with the Centro passenger transport authority for more than two years laying the groundwork for such a scheme.
Within the next two months still-secret plans should be approved in order to hit a Government deadline. It could use satellite technology linked to a “spy in the car” black box in every vehicle, or rely on roadside cameras and microwave detectors scanning for tell-tale chips in cars, vans and lorries passing by.
In return for setting up a road charging system the West Midlands will be given £4 billion to spend on public transport, road building, an expanded Metro system and a new railway station at New Street in Birmingham.
But the region’s drivers will have to foot the bill, forking out for road charges that could dwarf the £400-a-year currently faced by London drivers paying the Congestion Charge.
The region’s seven local councils have yet to give the official scheme the green light, despite making positive noises towards it behind the scenes.
Councillor Wakefield said Staffordshire County Council has not been involved in the regional project.
“Although we have some congestion problems in Staffordshire they do not appear on the radar nationally compared to the problems experienced by metropolitan areas,” he explained.
Councillor Wakefield said that when the issue or road charging had been discussed by the cabinet several years ago the view was that it could put the county at the risk of disadvantage.
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what a surprise wolverhampton is going to do it. People that work shifts cannot get the bus all the time what do they do yet again pay and take it. As for coming in to town forget it you pay loads just to park forget it.
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Be prepared for poll-tax style riots.
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its a just another tax toget more money its time that people come out and say enough is enough and start protesting like the petrol protest its only then will any one listen its going to make food and everything esle more expensive to buy so people will what pay rises when will they see what will happen
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Let,s use this technology ,which is bound to be ultra efficient,to track illegal immigrants,pedophiles,bail breakers, etc, and save the country a fortune, by chipping them, instead of keep squeezing the great british money teat, sorry i ment the great british motoring public.
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again screw the motorist, an easy target its time we looked at the inflated expenses councillers claim to represent us, the answer lies in the next election every counciller who votes in favour of this dick turpin tax DO NOT VOTE FOR
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it is a disgrace what this govenment keeps on doing to the people of this contry they don,t even wear a mask like dick turpin.they just keep on taxing the people that need to travel to and from work all it will do is the people that do work will ask for a pay rise.the people like myself who are self employed and have to use there own cars they will pass on the charge then everyone will be paying not just the motorist then when my accounts are done my turnover will look good be taxed on it but my profits will be less .THINK I WILL GIVE UP WORKING then what about the shops in town won,t they suffer yet again people will not go to town they will go else where they won,t pay the charge then theparking charge aswellsounds as if this hasnot been thought of yet again.people should start pertioning yet again more seriously again like the petrol pertionigthey might situp and start listing
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Guess when we come on our annual visit to the suburbs of Wolverhampton, we won’t be going to spend our tourist money in the city – bad luck the shops of Wolverhampton, if others do as we do, your businesses will be the losers.
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Yet another tax on the long suffering public. Not only do we pay the highest for petrol in the majority of the EU, get stung for road tax whatever car you buy, but we are going to be taxed for going about our daily business.
What about the small self employed business man with a van, you could do miles just picking up parts, going to look at a job that in the end you do not get.
What about the majority of people who do not live and work within a short walk or bus ride! I would have to catch three buses, and put another three hours on my travelling day, I do not want to have to stand in the cold and rain waiting for a bus that never comes on time, and when I get on it it is filthy. What about the people who work shifts, is a nurse expected to leave a hospital at 10 or 11pm at night and then try to find a bus to get home, possibly miles away! who is going to guarantee her (or his) safety at that time of night hanging around waiting for non-existant public transport. Furthermore how is the ordinary housewife with a child expected to walk to the shops and carry a weeks shopping back in about ten bags!
And how are we expected to afford it. We are already squeaking at the amount of money that is taken off us every month just to pay the bills and live, figures that go up constantly. If this Government wants a country full of bankrupts, then keep on going, because at this rate no-one in the country will have a job, because no-one will have any money to go and buy anything.
How much more does this Government think that the long suffering British people will keep putting up with, there has to come a stop. If they think that this will ease congestion it may, but only because no-one will be able to afford to go anywhere and that will not be tolerated for long.
How much more can we take!!
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if, and I say if,(remember the poll tax revolt) the pay as you drive tax comes in, will the coucillors find a way to excempt themselfs from paying it. They usualy find a way.
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no way is this going to work..it’ll probely turn out like the poll tax and that ended in tears…go ahead at your own peril wolverhampton…
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youll soon have to pay to breath!!!!
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hummm 1.50 per mile would mean around 15.00 per day or around 300 per month. Or I could catch a several buses that take 2 hours to get me there (instead of around 20 mins by car).
I think I will give up work and go on the dole.
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never heard of this in any country then why this one. they seriously need to put more thought into this because i think its just been delt on having ideas. jus a light bulb lightin up on someones stuiped head i truely agree with u andy soon there will be no cars on the road and the trains n busses will be full were they tryin to get to whats goin to be the hole point people already payin so much for there car.
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Once again this is a tax on the working man, what is this labour government up to.
Having been a labour man for most of my working life (and my parents before me)and a member- well if this does come out this is one member and one vote that they will lose, come the next election I will be voting for the party that thinks about british people and it ain’t tory or the mongral party (lib dem).
Enough is enough.
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What a complete and utter disgrace. Where has our democracy gone? Who do the councillors supporting this additional cost think they represent?
93% of journeys are made by car – because it is the most flexible and efficient means of transport.
Who are the people behind road pricing in this area?
Centro are a quango who’s single aim is to support and increase the use of public transport. They are not elected.
Centro are in charge of the consultation process and the introduction of road pricing in the west midlands.
Centro effectively run public transport.
What better way of increasing profits and prices on the buses than force people out of their cars?
It does not work in London – fares the highest in the world and rising, and it will not work in the west midlands.
Phone you councillor, write to them and tell them how this will affect your life.
Ask them to vote against this ridiculous plan before it is too late.
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What a stupid idea!! Birmingham, perhaps, but Wolves? Having visited downtown twice last year I can honestly say Wolverhampton does not know the meaning of traffic congestion. It sounds more like a Blair New Labour scheme to gain more taxes!!
TTFN, TeeC
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When are the people of this country going to stop being used as never ending cash machines.
Road charging will only work if we all just sit back and accept it, if we refuse to have the technology fitted or pay the bills when they come in, are they going to take everyone to court?
the thousands of motorists that this country has would be able to so over load the court system for years that changes would have to be made.
I,m a disabled driver I can’t catch public transport, but I can have my day in court and if this highway robbery is forced upon us I will have no hesitation in standing against this.
I don’t trust councillors they will look after number one and if told to vote for this they will,only we the ordinary man and woman in the street can prevent this henus robbery taking place.
Should these proposals take place I for one will be prepaired to form a body to fight this all the way. Who else is with me?
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Yet another way of extracting hard earned money from tax payers pockets. So now not only do we have to go to work and pay taxes to support the millions who don’t, but now we’re going to have to pay extortionate rates to do so. If this is brought in i would find myself having to pay up to £16 a day to get to and from work. That’s on top of petrol and everything else. I can’t get public transport as it is too far and i have to carry a lot of equipment. Maybe we should all go on the dole then we can have everything paid for us!!! Then where would this country be!!
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it’s just another way in which to penalise the british motorist. we already are charged more to drive in england than most other european countries, we pay almost £1 a litre for petrol, have road tax, then we are charged extortionate rates to park in our local towns. what was the point of signing up to that on line petition if no one was going to bother to look at it. so much for a democratic society?????
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As this new Labour(I will not call them Government as it has now become a dictatorship) have placed restriction after restriction on the people of this country with little or no thought on the consequences to it’s citizens, road priceing along with extra refuge charges, speed cameras, higher council tax if you can see anything other than a brick wall from your windows, appear to be replacing the tax raised by the selling of cigarets that it is now 90% illegal to use in 90% of the country. This all brought in by a PM who is now scurrying off to a multi thousand pound job jetting around the world, (so much for carbon emmissions)and a PM comming in who no one of the public has voted to be priminister.
Both Blair and even more so i fear Brown will finish what Thatcher started and bringing this country of equivalent to some third rate European or Latin American state.
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Hear Hear Sue Mills!! What is the point of working for a living when it is just robbed from you with more and more tax. You’re better of being on the dole. If this was a really happening city with loads to do and great shops like Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds then I could slightly understand it (I still wouldn’t agree with it), but Wolverhampton city centre has nothing going for it, the shops aren’t great and other than the art gallery there’s not a great lot going on so why pay to get into it? This will kill the centre businesses. I could go on but what’s the point? over 2 million signed the online petition to put a stop to this but the “great” government haven’t bothered to take any notice of that!
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Please, Express & Star readers, use your noddles!
Every single one of use, whether we drive a car or not, pay the price of congestion.
When you get in a car you contribute to congestion, air pollution, risk of road traffic accidents (and extra costs to the NHS for treating those injuries), police costs, the severance of communities caused by the difficulty to cross roads and the poor environment caused by busy roads, creating risk aversion in parents and children too scared to play or walk near roads, global warming caused by carbon emissions, a decrease in community cohesion as a result of people sitting alone in cars, rather than out walking in their neighbourhoods, the closure of local shops as a result of people driving to hypermarkets, an increase in the perception of crime as the only people left walking the streets are groups of youths (because everyone else are in their cars).
These are genuine costs that we all pay.
Your roads are paid for by all of us, as taxpayers. Your car parks take up acres and acres of valuable land that could be used to provide houses and reduce house prices. The need for the petrol for your cars forces governments to invade foreign countries to secure oil supplies.
Can’t you understand that the costs are currently paid for by everyone, whether we drive a car or not? Therefore, road charging is simply a way of redressing this imbalance and ensuring partly that those who are responsible for a service, pay for it?
What’s so unfair about that?
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Andrew popovich
You clearly must ride to work on a bike everyday, you obviously can’t see the argument being put forward.
The majority do not want this.
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Andrew Popovich claims all tax payers pay for roads, can he tell us where the 90 odd percent of the billions paid by UK motorists go? It sure doesn’t go towards public transport and road repairs / schemes.
Our car parks take up acres of land that could be used for houses!
The car parks belong to the motorists?
I wonder if that ill thought out comment will allow me to avoid paying the car park owners their fees?
Car parks in Wolverhampton City Center would not be turned in to “affordable” housing, it’s City Center land and therefore worth more than most people could afford if a house were built on it!
I am not going to waste further time in disputing Andrew’s more outlandish spoutings.
I fear Andrew has been using his noodle (Pot Noodle) instead of his brain.
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Wow! … What a furore ……. It would seem that there is something that Can dispel the General Apathy that usually Pevades this Country on Other Issues.
This is but the thin end of the Wedge and you Worshippers who lay Offerings on the Alter of the Great God Kar can look to see a lot more of the Same ………….. It is a Strategem used by the Wealthy … you drive a Commodity so costly to the point when it can no longer be used by the unwashed masses …. then facilities can be truly savoured …… they used it with success with Golf Courses.
Personally I use a Bike …… Works for me………………….
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Here here to Ray of Dudley, John Davis, Pete D and Sharon.
I’m a non-driver but agree the driver & tax payer are again being screwed by this so-called government. I have to walk or rely on buses which are usually filthy, expensive bus fares and sometimes a scary journey for lone passengers. I moved to an estate in Brierley Hill 12 years ago and the buses ran every half an hour – 12 years later and the service hasn’t improved. My husband is disabled and needs his car for work. Life certainly isn’t fair and being a hard worker and tax payer doesn’t always pay!
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Having just read the comments regarding road pricing I think the score is currently 24:1. This surely shows the feelings of the local motoring public. Perhaps our local politicians should heed this groundswell of feeling and remember that they are elected to represent the local people and not blindly follow the machinations of central government. The problem seems though that they are being bribed to promote a scheme in exchange for a £4b grant.
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£1.50 per mile would cost me about £20 per day, £100 per week… I only earn about £300 per week.
OK, I could avoid this cost by using public transport.
Can someone tell me how I avoid the rising cost of everything else that travels by road?
How will this affect prices in shops? Even the large ASDA by the Wolves ground takes deliveries by lorry!
Will Royal Mail absorb the cost incurred by their drivers picking up letters etc.?
What happens when employees that travel sometimes large distances to get to work, distances that would take hours to cover by public transport, suddenly decide to find a job (ha) closer to home?
What will happen to house prices near to where large numbers of people work?
What about prices of houses in the country side?
This will have a massive effect on the economy and do little and nothing to stave off the worst effects of motoring – the pollution.
Surely it would be much more sensible to address the real issue and create / invent cars that have a 0 (which I realise is totally unrealistic target) pollution output.
Oh, and an odd thought here…
When your council decides to send those fellows to collect the contents of your bins once a fortnight (rememer this could be on its way).
How comfortable will public transport be when people try to take the excess stinking rubbish to the nearest recycling center?
We are headed back to the dark ages, serfs can’t travel further than walking distance from home.
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Whats the problem with congestion? We all know that between 8 and 9 am and 5 to 6 pm that the traffic is going to be worse. We know that and we do it. we do it because it is a fact of life and we accept it. If someone wants to get somewhere without the traffic they either start earlier or leave later. Not everyone has this opportunity but if 30% did then that could cut down traffic by 30% at these times. I drive 30,000 miles per year and if I know I need to be somewhere for a particular time I will leave plenty of time or try and make appointments fit into the day so I can get to a place early and then finish earlier. I work my travels around the traffic hotspots so I get a better journey.
We all accept traffic is bad, but it is bad because we are all entitled to freedom of movement to go where we want when we want. Was their not a quote about the free movement of the workforce ‘get on yer bike’? We have been encouraged to seek work further afield over the last 40 years. Now that we are all doing it we need to be penalised. It is our inalienable right to travel where we want in the public domain as long as we do so lawfully and respectfully of other people.
One last point. I go fishing now and then, and part of the day out is driving through some beautiful countryside to get to where I am going. I spend a day in peace and solitude in the middle of nowhere and then have a slow drive home through the aforesaid countryside. I would not be able to do that on a bus or train.
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Andrew, what tosh you write!!! – I need a car for work – I travel all across Wolves everyday, helping vulnerable people. If I were to use a bike or walked – where would I put my files? – How long would it take me to travel from one address to another – at what cost would it incur on my employer for using up so much time – what cost implications would it have on my service users? In essence me using a car is saving my employers time and money!!!! – Oh and let us know when you wake up and start talking sense!!!
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Andrew Popovich you are so out of touch I wonder if your on the same planet as us.
I pay approximately £150.00 a year Road tax, I pay nearly £5 a gallon for my fuel, I pay VAT, and Purchase Tax on any servicing or repairs that I have done on my car and I wont even talk about the third of my income that I lose every week in Income Tax, and of course all the VAT that I pay on any purchases I make.
So tell me how does the dear old pensioner who doesn’t leave the house from one year to the next, or the newly arrived asylum seeker, pay anywhere near what I am paying to the British Government?
Congestion is not always caused by the volume of cars on the road, have you noticed how councils deliberately narrow roads, when they have a bus stop they nearly always site the bus stop near another obstacle such as a pedestrian centre reservation, to ensure that when the bus stops to pick up passengers no other vehicles can drive round the bus, this is the cause of congestion.
I live in Bearwood, on Bearwood Road there are 6 sets of traffic lights in a distance of less than a quarter of a mile, in order to ensure that if these lights don’t prevent the flow of traffic, and bring it to a halt, they have deliberately built the foot path out into the road in a number of places, to deliberately narrow the road, that’s why we have congestion.
And if the number of motorists on the road is causing the problem, why are we paying people to have more children? many of whom have chosen Britain to come to because of its benefit system.
If people come here with children then that family should not receive Family Allowance, and for the families that are here the Family Allowance, should be restricted to the first 2 children only.
Jim of Bearwood.
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When you have to commute from different areas in a short space of time every day you have no option to use you own transport, especial when you have kids at school and work in the complete opposite direction to them, public transport can add more on you travel time, not ideal when you are late from getting from A t o B in an emergency. The country knows nothing else but to take money from its people. We work are hardest to provide for our family only for another money grabbing scheme to arise from the goverment. There are other problems in this country that need far more attention, the more money that is taken from familys the increase of poor familys, there are many familys that are stuggling with the way things are now, why add more problems.
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What an outrage! This Government is an absolute disgrace! Why should we pay by the mile with a tracker fitted to our cars? They seem to think at the moment our cars run for free, not at £1 a litre for petrol and stupid tax brackets on CO2 emissions!
If they were that bothered about climate change why are they busy floating round in there private jets and V8 Jags, building nuclear power stations and having nowhere to dump the waste?
They blame congestion and say that they have go to do something about it, and that Road Pricing is the way forward. Has it not entered there head that we are an island and that we are going to run out of room if they keep on letting thousands of people in? New housing is been built in my area everywhere and no new roads to get to them, what is this going to cause? CONGESTIION that’s what!
I for one will do everything in my power to stop them from getting away with this robbery! Anyone with me?
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“So tell me how does the dear old pensioner who doesn’t leave the house from one year to the next, or the newly arrived asylum seeker, pay anywhere near what I am paying to the British Government?”
Now see here “Mr Jim of Bearwood” As a Dear Old Pensioner who was Paying Taxes Long before you were a Streak down your Dad’s Trousers and who donned a Uniform to Help Mop up some of this Countries Conflicts so that You along with Others could have the Freedoms to “Cackle Your Grease” about what you do and not do .. as Well as have the “Privelege” not the “Right” to use your Motorised vehicle on British Roads. So if you have a Beef .. Aim it in the Right direction and Kick This Inane Government where it Matters the most … In the Ballot Box …. Bah Humbug!…….
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Dear, oh dear, oh dear, I’m in limbo, my lefty affliations are slowly dying!!!
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All I can say – Tony Blair = Maggie Thatcher in drag!!!
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People pay way too much for petrol, insurance & now we have this ridiculous road tax scheme. Whats gonna happen to everyone who owns a car? Nobody will be able to sell their vehicles, they will just sit & clog the streets & rot away & be worthless.
Some people have payed thousands for their cars & that money will basically go to waste.
What about businesses? Prices will go up everywhere, & it wont be the fault of the business, it will be goverments fault.
Its a joke.
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I wonder how much i can sell a one way plane ticket on ebay for? lol
Destination “anywhere but here” or will we be seeing English people hiding in the back of trucks going to eastern Europe?
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This is a disgraceful tax on the hard working, for many it will mean they wont be able to afford to go to work, so wont be able to pay their mortgages or eat etc, a state of anarchy can be the only result. I think the nation should unite and revolt against this unfair and unjust tax, if we all stick together and refuse to pay and revolt like we did in the poll tax demonstrations the government will have to uturn or face a bloody nose.
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The £1.50 will soon double and double and double, again and again and again just like the petrol and road tax rip-off. Any Councillor who votes for this should be out of a job at the next election. Phone and email your Councillor, tell them they represent YOU, not stupid antisocial federal Europe authoritarianism.
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Well i currently drive to work as there are no direct bus routes. I have to travel 11 miles each way, 5 days a week so it would cost me £165.00 a week to get to and from work. This would leave me about £80 to live off. However £35 a week fuel + Approx £4 a week for road tax… £41 a week to live off… Are these people just trying to destroy the country? We need a nationwide REVOLT!!!
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Just a simple thought, if everyone refuses to pay the imposing tax, they wont lock us up due to overcrowded prison’s.. Although i wouldn’t be surprised if the government let out all murderers, peado’s, crooks and literally the lowest scum of society to accommodate us innocent motorists…
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Shall we start a petition to ban adrew popovich and his ridiculous comment’s from this site? What a complete load of tosh this idiot speaks.It would be comical if not so small minded.
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There is always one and I guess it’s andrew, england was invading other countries and robbing them long before now and for more than just petrol, redressing the balance? how?
I learnt to drive becuase public transport is disgusting, I stood at bus stops with my son who was 2 at the time and saw buses racing each other to do their route that the bus I wanted sailed past while the one I didn’t want stopped leaving me waiting with my son in the rain and the cold for the next bus to come, I’ve had bus drivers start driving with the doors still open with my little girl still stood on the steps by the door, because of their haste to complete their route.
Driving has enabled me to look further a field for jobs when I couldn’t find a job in wolves I was able to secure a job in birmingham, get the kids to and from school and nursery and get to work which would have been difficult before.
It already costs money to run the car keep if road worthy taxed mot’d and insuranced so we are legal to be on the road now congestion charges is taking the micky when you look at places charging extortianate prices to park just to be where you need to be.
The hospitals are making a killing charging patients and visitors to the hospital which is disgusting, as during my relapses I am at the hospital every few days having bloods and it costs me every time, and when I am having to travel to birminghams childrens hospital with my baby the cost for parking and petrol, and what I can claim back on benefits is a joke in comparison to what it costs.
So to then stick congestion charges on top is taking the royal pee.
At the rate this government is going you’ll be working all the hours god sends and they’ll be taking all your wages for one trumped up reason or another, as it is bills coming fro all directions is already taking my money then they say they are trying todeal with poverty when this is just gonna add to my mysery and people like me.
While I have to ask what does this government do for me?, a uni student who every time I go for a job I am told I am over qualified, hell if I didn’t need the money I wouldn’t apply for the job, and being over qualified should mean I can do the job with my eyes closed.
Anything the government thinks is taxable and a way to making them more money, yet where does it go back into the system, the homes you talk about, well what about all the deralict houses the council could be demolishing and rebuliding, the shortage of houses is due to the amount of immagrants and people buying their council home while the council dont think to rebuild any.
Half of those so called acres used for parking would stay vacant because the coucil are not and have not built any new council homes in yrs and they’re the ones who really need to be developing more homes.
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