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| Plan to use tolls to fund A14 improvements abandoned | Plan to use tolls to fund A14 improvements abandoned |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Plans to create the UK's first toll road for a decade are to be dropped, with improvements to the A14 instead funded from general taxation. | |
| The plans involve widening a heavily congested 25-mile stretch in East Anglia carrying traffic from the port of Felixstowe to the Midlands. | The plans involve widening a heavily congested 25-mile stretch in East Anglia carrying traffic from the port of Felixstowe to the Midlands. |
| PM David Cameron said last week that he understood the strong opposition to the proposal to charge motorists. | PM David Cameron said last week that he understood the strong opposition to the proposal to charge motorists. |
| The plan had been to raise 20% of the overall £1.5bn cost from tolls. | The plan had been to raise 20% of the overall £1.5bn cost from tolls. |
| The Highways Agency had said that charges could be set at between £1 and £1.50 for cars using the 12-mile (19km) stretch of toll road, and about double this sum for lorries, although these figures were not finalised. | |
| Overnight trips were to have been toll free. | |
| In September, Mr Cameron said: "I think there is a strong case for saying when you're putting in new capacity, when you're dealing with congestion, that some of the people who are going to benefit from that, should pay something towards it. | |
| "Everybody knows that we're living in circumstances where the government can't just create money. | |
| "We have to live within our means. If we want transport programmes to go ahead - but we deal with our deficits and debts at the same time - we sometimes have to make some tough decisions." | |
| But at the PM's weekly Commons question session last week he said: "I am well aware of the strong feelings in Suffolk about this issue and I have been approached about it by many Members of Parliament. | |
| "I believe that road tolls can play an important part in providing new road capacity and it is important that we find ways to pay for road capacity, but I also understand the concerns about this individual case." | |
| South Suffolk MP Tim Yeo had asked him whether he agreed there was a "risk that introducing tolls on roads without a toll-free alternative may undermine support for the sensible concept of road pricing". |