MORE than a dozen towns and cities are considering radical road pricing schemes to help tackle rising congestion.

Millions of motorists outside London — the only place in Britain so far to introduce widespread congestion charging — will be required to pay for road use if the plans go ahead.

The move heralds the first step towards a national road pricing scheme that could see drivers being charged anything from 2p per mile on quiet roads to £1.34 per mile in congestion hotspots at peak times.

Areas considering road pricing include big cities, such as Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle, as well as smaller conurbations, such as Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

Nottingham is proposing a workplace parking levy that would involve the city’s big employers paying the council up to £300 a year for individual parking spaces. It is hoped this would force companies to encourage their staff to travel to work by alternative means.

Even Brixham, the picturesque fishing port on the south coast, is seeking to curb town centre traffic by introducing a £4.8m park-and-ride system.

The interest in tackling congestion through “demand management” measures has been triggered by Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, who is making £18m available for councils to fund feasibility studies into “schemes where pricing is a major element”.

The money is the first tranche of the government’s Transport Innovation Fund (TIF), which will rise to £2.5 billion in a decade. The deadline for initial bids was last Friday.

The most high-profile bid has come from the West Midlands, where Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and four other councils are keen to examine pay-per-mile charges based on satellite-tracking technology.

Darling wants at least one large conurbation to pilot road pricing before it can be introduced nationally and the West Midlands is thought to be the frontrunner.

Such a scheme — which would not go live across the country before 2015 — would involve road tax and fuel duty being scrapped or reduced in favour of distance-based charges according to the time of day.

Ministers believe motorists could be encouraged to take part in a pilot by being offered a rebate on fuel duty or concessions such as lower council tax.

If granted funding, the West Midlands aims to complete a feasibility study by next summer. A voluntary trial could begin in 2009, moving to a compulsory scheme by 2012.

Newcastle, with Gateshead, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside, plans to examine both distance-based charging and a “twin-cordon” scheme, where motorists would pay to enter urban centres in the morning rush hour.

Other areas prepared to consider road pricing include Cambridgeshire, and Bristol and Bath — which are jointly bidding with two other southwest councils. Councils in Hampshire, including Portsmouth and Southampton are also bidding for TIF money.

Durham, which already imposes a £2 levy on cars entering its historic centre, may seek to extend its charging regime.

One of the more surprising candidates is Shrewsbury. In a recent survey, 80% of residents said they were prepared to accept some form of congestion charge if it cut traffic.

ROAD PRICING

Places considering the C-charge

Birminhgham
Bristol
Cambridge
Coventry
Shrewsbury
Stoke-on-Trent
Sunderland
Wolverhampton