Sir – As the debate over whether cyclists should be taxed to use the roads that motorists pay for continues, Chris Day (Letters, September 20) is disingenuous when he states that there is no such thing as road tax. We know the tax is officially called Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) but everyone (except non-contributing cyclists) call it the “road tax”.
Even the Advertising Standards Authority is content with the current use of “road tax” as the vernacular for VED.
David Lloyd George announced in 1909 that the roads system would be self financing and so from 1910 the proceeds of road vehicle excise duties were dedicated to fund the building and maintenance of the road system
Most recently HM Treasury received £33bn in “road tax”, including £2.5bn of company car tax. Expenditure on roads by central and local government amounts to approximately £9 billion per year with £3.2bn spent on national roads and £5.6bn on local roads.
Where is the missing £24bn!?
In 1932, Lieutenant Colonel Moore-Brabazon said in a debate in the House of Commons about the Road Fund: “This vote is different from any other because the money that goes to the Ministry of Transport is motorists’ money. It is not Imperial taxation. It is money that comes from the motorists, to be spent on one definite thing, namely, the roads.”
I trust that this information will now enlighten Mr Day that the money used for the upkeep of our roads does not come out of general taxation but that the motorist is paying a staggering amount of tax which is used for many other purposes.
John Clapton, Kennington
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