I've won my 8th Schaeffer pen from my local newspaper, the Express &
Star, for letter of the week. It's retails at £29 and I collected from
Beatties, which is part of the House of Fraser group ;-)

We UKIPers to the contrary of the media and the liberals are not
obsessed by immigration. I wrote a letter about the congestion charge.


Dear Editor,

The congestion charge is not the way forward as it’s a regressive tax.
It’ll make motoring the preserve of the middle class and rich again. It
would be better for the government to be bold and brave, to implement
former Transport Secretary Alistair Darling’s plan. This is to make it
law that every vehicle owner, as a satellite receiver fitted to every
vehicle they own and are charged per mile of road used. Added to this, I
would subsidise the road charge for the poor by having the rich pay
double road charge. Also, large and medium sized cars should be charged
more than small cars in our major cities and towns. This will encourage
people to buy and use micro and mini size cars in the city, so that a
higher car density per mile is achieved.

Secondly, the public transport system in the West Midlands needs massive
renewal. We are miles behind Manchester, which as an excellent tram
system. The major rail routes in the Black Country that was closed
during the Beeching axe, should be brought back into use as either
tramways or dedicated rapid trolleybus roads. It takes about half the
time for a tram or trolleybus on a dedicated roadway to get to its
destination than a bus on public roads.

Thirdly, buses by themselves are never going to cut the mustard in
enticing motorists to use public transport. Buses are very slow halting
about every 200 yards at stops. Also, they stop at junctions, are in
traffic jams, and have to get around parked vehicles like any other road
vehicle. Bus lanes are hindrance to buses, as reducing a dual
carriageway to one lane for traffic, cause a traffic jam that the bus
gets caught in before it gets to the bus lane. It’ll be far better if
roads were kept has they are, to allow for free flow of traffic which
obviously helps buses to get along better. Bus lay-bys should be at
every bus stop if possible to allow for more free flow of traffic. Many
times I’ve seen traffic build up behind buses halting at stops to the
nuisance of other vehicle uses.

Regards
Joe Egginton.