SO the Secretary of Transport, Alastair Darling MP, has decided that it would be a great idea to scrap traditional motoring taxes such as road fund licences and fuel tax in favour of a satellite hovering overhead charging motorists for travelling in the most congested areas by means of a ?black box? in each vehicle. Well, in one way that would be disastrous for Okehampton with the almighty ?cock-up? that is described as a road system but on the other hand if fuel tax was to be cut out then we might not notice the inflationary implications of ?Big Brother? technology because of the cost of fuel in the town. You do not need to travel too far to benefit from a reduction of 3-4p per litre over the extortionate prices being charged here and one has to ask why this is? Whereas in other areas claims are being made of the supermarkets getting together to maximise their profits, here it is the filling stations and with the necessity to sit in queues of traffic there will be an escalation of very expensive exhaust emissions to add to the calls to halt ?global warming or climate change?. When is Devon County Council going to accept that the traffic re-organisation they introduced into the centre of the town was a huge mistake? Derek Godfrey-Brown Larkbeare Okehampton
