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Discount bid on fuel tax in rural areas - for The Inverness Courier
LAST week's strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery and the knock on effects it had for the supply of fuel locally, graphically illustrated our dependence on this source of energy.
The oil refined at Grangemouth fuels our cars, heats many of our homes and is (along with gas) one of the largest sources of electricity generation.
The temporary shortages that some local filling stations experienced show how even a relatively small shock to the system can have significant consequences. The government — at Scottish and UK levels — has real lessons to learn about handling this sort of crisis.
In particular, the fact that suppliers seemed to think it acceptable to fail to distribute fuel in a timely way to some of the small, independent petrol stations, both here in Inverness and in rural areas, suggests a worrying bias that would have more serious consequences if the problems occurred over a longer time period. That this happened in the same week that petrol companies also announced record profits shows where their priorities lie.
The rapidly rising price of petrol is hitting people hard — and more rises are likely. It is very frustrating that the government remains unwilling to admit there are differences between remoter areas, such as the Highlands and Islands, and major urban areas. We rely more on our cars because there are longer distances to travel and fewer — if any — public transport alternatives.
I will be pressing again in the Finance Bill for a reduced level of tax to apply in remote areas. The chancellor recently agreed to meet a delegation from the North, led by my colleague Alistair Carmichael from Orkney and Shetland.
Mr Darling's recent visit to Lewis showed him directly the much higher price paid in our region and I hope that this meeting will result in action.
Sadly, the government sneaked through another tax grab against motorists last week.
I support the idea that there should be higher levels of vehicle excise duty for the most polluting vehicles. But to be a genuine incentive — not just a tax grab — it should apply to new vehicles only.
The government has decided instead that this change should be backdated to the year 2001. That is not an environmental tax, it is simply a way to get much more money from people who have bought a vehicle in the last few years. That needs to be resisted in the Finance Bill too.
A radical overhaul of the tax system would involve the introduction of national road user charging to replace road tax and much of fuel duty too. That way, people would pay more for driving on the most congested roads where there is good public transport, but the necessity of rural driving would be recognised through much lower charges too. That is something I hope my own party will be putting forward strongly over the next few months.
PHONE BOXES
The assault on essential community services under the guise of "commercial" considerations continued last week with the announcement by BT that it wishes to remove over 200 payphones across the region. Many communities that are facing the closure of their post office will also be hit by this change.
BT says that these boxes are losing money, and it is right that many more people use mobile phones. But in many locations, especially rural ones, a phone box can be a lifeline. The fact that they are little used cannot disguise the fact that some of the calls may be absolutely critical.
I hope that communities affected will make strong representations where there are real risks from a removal, and I will certainly support them in that.
Posted on: 06/05/2008
