Aberdeen plans road toll

Road pricing is being considered by councillors in Scotland to pay for a 17.5-mile route around Aberdeen. The Western Peripheral road, costed at pounds 80m, is unlikely to be financed by the Scottish Office; instead, councillors commissioned a report into alternative funding.

Simple "cordon tolls" - where motorists pay before joining a road - have been considered, as well as more sophisticated tolling technologies.

Making motorists pay for using roads has become a regular feature of councils' plans to raise revenue and tackle congestion. Authorities in Bristol, London and Edinburgh have all put forward road-pricing schemes.

However, environmentalists said that Aberdeen's move is "going about the problem in the wrong way". Simon Festing, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth, said: "Some of the money, preferably all of it, raised should be used to fund public-transport schemes."

Randeep Ramesh, Transport Correspondent