Why toll roads?
In 1706 Parliament enabled the introduction of turnpike roads. These were private businesses that maintained roads using the income obtained from charging for its use. By 1830 there were more than a thousand turnpike roads covering a total of 35,000 miles. The advent of railways made turnpikes less attractive and in 1888 all roads became the responsibility of the newly established local authorities. Nowadays roads in the UK are mostly still owned by local highway authorities. Motorways and other trunk roads are owned by the Department for Transport and maintained by the Highways Agency as their executive agents. Since 1888, highway authorities have also been responsible for building new roads using funding from income tax and other government taxes. Tax payers pay for the construction and maintenance of these roads even if they never use them. Toll roads like the M6 Toll are funded in a different and much fairer way. The cost of building and maintaining them is borne by the developer w
