Driving in the UK is a dystopian nightmare – Labour needs to take one measure to save us

Driving in Britain has become an endurance test for even the toughest of motorists with the outcome of a once simple journey being raised blood pressure, a bill in the post or both. Long gone are the days of simply driving off with a pocket full of coins for a parking meter and the need to avoid an overzealous traffic warden. Traffic wardens have now been replaced by parking or civil enforcement officers – and aside from the more aggressive language – they dress in a way more suitable for an early morning drugs raid as opposed to the once smart uniform required to slap a ticket on a windscreen. Drivers have become the enemy of the government, local councils and various taxpayer-funded campaign organisations that exist in the name of ‘road safety’ or promoting ‘clean air’. A trip to any UK town or city sees the motorist run a gamut of all kinds of cameras that exist to capture the motorist for making the slightest innocent mistake. Stray and stop into a criss-cross yellow box by a yard because the idiot ahead of you misjudged the road space available to them and there will be a camera to capture your misdemeanour which will be followed by a fine in the post. Cameras blight our highways, enforcing everything from the right of buses to use their specific lanes to implementing London’s Congestion Charge – which only seems to have achieved the opposite of what it was originally set up for apart from handily replenishing the Transport for London coffers frequently. Then we have the ubiquitous ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras which supposedly used to help the police catch wrong ‘uns – this is all well and good though one has to wonder how this squares with the near record number of uninsured cars still on our roads. Cameras are also used to enforce all kinds of speed restrictions on road systems that are increasingly complicated and seem intentionally designed to catch out a driver. These include 20mph speed restrictions – a great measure at peak times around schools, care homes or busy areas. But the road safety argument of these limits really does some heavy lifting on a deserted road at half-past four in the morning – regardless of which, there will be a camera there to snap you should you slightly stray above the ludicrous limit. Average speed limit cameras seem to be growing in number – especially in rural parts of the country. A journey I am familiar with in Surrey uses these to enforce a stretch of road that at times includes 30mph, 40mph and 50mph limits which must be incomprehensible to someone who had never driven that way before. The monitored motorist also has to deal with cameras in place to uphold Ultra Low Emission (ULEZ) or Clean Air Zones which can vary depending on where you might be in the UK. London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan infamously extended the capital’s ULEZ zone to capture as many people as possible who cannot afford to upgrade their old banger and to fleece them for £12.50 a day – meanwhile Newcastle’s Clean Air Zone Toll will hit you for up to £50 depending on the unsuitability of your vehicle. Birmingham’s version of this tax on the motorist will cost you £8 a day, while in Bristol private motorists will be hit for nine quid – all of this enforced by even more roadside cameras. The validity of these zones must surely be questioned – Manchester’s proposed scheme was scrapped in 2022 by the then Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham after a backlash – the taxpayer last year had to pick up the £600k tab for having the road signs removed. If the authorities are serious about clean air, then scrapping a scheme because it might dent a regional mayor’s ego or popularity suggests that they are not the necessity numerous campaigners and the authorities will have us believe. The other issue with these zones is that they unfairly hit those with diesel work vehicles harder which is another cost to businesses at a time when they can least afford it. All in all, driving has become a dystopian nightmare and that is before you look at other measures in place to get cash out of motorists including the daylight robbery of drop-off charges at the country’s airports which outrageously range up to £10. The British motorist is being fleeced at every turn and treated like a potential criminal before they reach for the keys of their vehicle – the least this government can do is not unfreeze fuel duty in the looming Budget to give us all slither of respite in these hellish and costly times.