A MAJOR new trial of road-user charging is being prepared by the Government as Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott pushes forward with key proposals from his white paper on integrated transport that could see fleet running costs soar. Hot on the heels of smaller scale tests throughout the country, including one in Leicester, Prescott announced he was looking for local authorities from throughout the country to volunteer.

Speaking at the First UK Chairs of Transport Annual Conference, in London, he said the road user charging trials will take place in two yet-to-be-named English and Scottish towns or cities and tackle some of the hurdles the Government and local authorities would face if charges were to be given the Parliamentary go-ahead. Prescott's battle with colleagues in the Cabinet over the white paper and whether it will be discussed in the next Parliamentary session has been the matter for much debate, but the deputy prime minister refused to be drawn on the issue, saying only that delegates would have to wait and see what was in the Queen's speech, but hinting that he was confident.