Anti-road-charge petition hits 750,000 signatures

An online petition against the proposed 'pay-as-you-drive' road charge has accumulated 750,000 signatures, suggesting significant dislike of the scheme among UK citizens.

The e-petition, hosted on the 10 Downing Street website, is due to close on 20 February 2007 and bloggers had been speculating that 750,000 signatures would be required to stop the government from introducing the road-charging scheme.

Photos: Germany's road-charging tech

See shots of the road-charging tech used on Germany's autobahns here.

However the Prime Minister's official spokesman said in a statement he was not aware of any threshold of signatures that would change government policy.

The spokesman added the consequences of doing nothing to stop congestion would lead to a 25 per cent increase in congestion in less than a decade.

Plans for a 'pay-as-you-drive' scheme, which a government-backed report claims would raise £28bn, have proved unpopular with silicon.com readers who have called the tax "highway robbery".

However, before the pay-as-you-drive tax was officially announced one survey found almost half the UK public would support a road-user charging scheme.

The proposed road-charging scheme could see drivers charged up to£1.30 per mile as they travel while GPS 'black box' technology would track their vehicle's journeys.

The road-charge petition is part of an e-petition feature on 10 Downing Street's website which allows individuals or groups to lobby the PM. It currently hosts petitions on a wide range of topics from 'ban Halloween' (with 78 signatures) to 'end all petitions' (with two votes).