Car fee plan for major city road May 4 2005
By Owen Mcateer, The Evening Chronicle
A city which introduced Britain's first congestion charging scheme could be about to expand it to one of the North East's busiest roads.
The Milburngate roundabout, on the A690 in Durham City, is the busiest in County Durham and a toll is being mooted to discourage drivers using it as a through route to other destinations.
But Durham County Council said it would depend on the construction of a northern relief road, which would give drivers not headed for the city centre an alternative route.
Durham City introduced Britain's first congestion charging on October 1, 2002. A £2 fee to drive along Saddler Street and up to Durham Cathedral, it cut traffic by 85% in its first year.
If a new congestion charge was introduced on the A690 it would be the first city-wide congestion charging scheme outside London.
Durham County Council is to apply for Government funds to introduce the fee and hopes to be among the first to get cash from a new transport innovation fund - to encourage travellers out of their cars and on to public transport. The fund will be established with £200m of public money in 2008, rising to £2bn in a decade.
Durham County Council today said the charge was only one possible option and would depend on the construction of the £14m northern relief road running from the A690 in the east to Aykley Heads in the north.
The council's highways manager Roger Elphick said: "We want to encourage through traffic to use that relief road.
"One idea may be, and I say may be, to look at some form of extension of the road charging scheme.
"It is a really busy road. There are more than 40,000 vehicles that go over Milburngate each day. A lot of them have business in the town centre but not that many."
The scheme would take at least eight to 10 years to come into existence and some sort of satellite technology could be used to charge drivers.
But truck operators are likely to demand exemptions for lorries which need to make deliveries in Durham City.
Geoff Dossetter, of the Freight Transport Association, said: "If you look at London, goods vehicles have got to go in because they're servicing businesses inside the charging zone so the charge doesn't act as a disincentive to go in, it's just an added cost to them."
Durham City traders are also concerned some people already believed you had to pay to get into Durham.
Colin Wilkes, of the Durham Markets Company, said: "It would be awkward to have another toll at the city's doorstep."
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