Reading Liberal Democrats

Reading Lib Dem Transport Spokesperson, Cllr Ricky Duveen, has submitted his party’s ideas to the Transport Commission looking into congestion in Reading – as official figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats showed that the number of vehicles on local roads has increased since the Labour Government came to power.

The key Lib Dem proposal is to introduce a charge for lorries using Reading town centre as a north-south through route instead of the A34 or A404. Cllr Duveen said “I am not a great fan of individual authorities all setting different road charges but the case for charging lorries running through Reading is very strong. We want lorries to avoid our congested town centre and use the perfectly good alternatives that are already available. Charging lorries for passing through Reading will hopefully make them avoid the town and lessen congestion. It is not a money-making scheme as the whole idea of charging is to keep this unwanted through traffic out of our town.”

Lorry charging was among more than 20 ideas put forward for discussion by the Lib Dems, including:

• Support for a Third Thames Bridge, with Reading Bridge becoming a public transport corridor once the new bridge is constructed;
• More Park and Ride schemes serving Reading.
• A major investment in better pedestrian routes and a cycle network;
• Safeguarding enough land for a better bus station by Reading Station during and after the redevelopment;
• Investigation into reducing the number of car journeys needed inside the IDR, and rejection of turning the ring road one-way (a point on which Lib Dems have taken the lead).

Lib Dems also want to see more done to support car clubs where people give up their private car and belong to a club that retains a fleet of cars that can be booked for use by members as and when they need.

Figures uncovered this week by the Liberal Democrats in Parliament show that over the past decade, the number of vehicles on roads in Berkshire has increased by 9% since 1997. Whilst this figure has now stabilised, it means that congestion on local roads has gone up since Labour came to power in 1997, despite promises to reduce the number of people relying on cars to get about.

Cllr Duveen commented that: “When Labour came to power in 1997, John Prescott, who was then deputy Prime Minister, said, ‘I will have failed if in five years’ time there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It’s a tall order but I urge you to hold me to it.”

“We are still waiting for Mr Prescott’s apology.”

“The rise in traffic across England generally is clearly a huge failure by the Government who promised so much but have delivered more congestion, pollution and more expensive buses and trains. Knowing the effects of large numbers of car journeys, why do we insist in making public transport so expensive ?”

Editor’s Notes -