Mark Lazarowicz: Edinburgh North & Leith

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	Tackling Road Congestion
	Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh, North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op): My right hon. Friend is obviously right to try to achieve consensus on the proposed scheme, although the attitude displayed by the Conservatives, and the less than wholehearted support given by the Liberal Democrats, suggest that that might be hard. Will he ensure that we do not end up putting all our eggs into the basket of the national road user charging scheme, at the expense of the fairly radical measures to tackle road congestion that must be taken in the next 10 or 15 years? Congestion will get a lot worse before any road user charging scheme can come into effect. Alistair Darling (Secretary of State for Transport): As I said in my statement, we must secure a degree of consensus on this matter. Consensus among politicians is desirable, although achieving it may take time and in the end may not be possible. However, there also needs to be a wider debate in the country on these matters, as they represent a huge change

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	5th July 2005, Col 179