GREAT BRITAIN'S HIGHWAYS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20225, 1 May 1931, Page 4

GREAT BRITAIN'S HIGHWAYS.

INCOME OF SIXTY MILLIONS. The third and final report in England of lb* R°s ,a l Commission on Transport, published recently, contains, in spite of its rather formidable title: "The Co-ordination and Development of Transport," quite a number of facts of interest to the motorist.. For instance, it declares that the annual cost of Great . Britain's highways is' £110,000,000; of this the ratepayer finds £■10,000,000 "And the motorist ijlO,000.000, though the latter sum does not present anything like tun full amount of. taxation paid by motorists. The Commission thinks that motorists are not paying too much in ..tax; it i.» also of tlie opinion that they aro uofc paying too little; but it thinks that the ratepayers ate Ixsing asked to pay more than they should. : One-third of the duty paid in reepeot of cars and motor-cycles is retained by the Exchequer for general revenue purposes. The Commission «ay 3 that tho argument that "the amount so diverted is in the nature of a luxury'tax is indefensible; in these days of modern civilisation the motor in an essential to many." Raids on the Road Fund by the Exchequer, says the Commission, are bad finance, since, under ths ever-present threat of a fresh raid, the Ministry of Transport is unable to -formulate with confidence a policv to be followed in years ahead. Other sound opinions expressed by the committee include a view that tramways, "if not an obsolete form of transport, are at all ovents in a stato of obsolescence, and cause much unnecessary congestion and considerable unnecessary danger to the public."