THE Government is being told to provide an ‘urgent’ explanation on why it has dropped lorry road user charging (LRUC) proposals.

Yesterday Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announced the scheme would be absorbed into the single road user charging system currently being planned.

The British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association responded angrily.

‘We demand a detailed explanation of this complete turn around,’ director general John Lewis said. ‘The Government asked for our co-operation on the LRUC, which we willingly gave, supporting HM Customs and helping to develop the most practicable scheme.

‘Now, for the Government not even to have the common decency to let us know that several years work was being dropped like a hot potato is blatantly discourteous.’

Lewis described the latest decision on the scheme as a ‘panic measure’ brought about by the Government's sudden realisation that the scheme was too difficult to manage.

‘If that is the case can anyone explain how the new, much larger scheme is going to be any easier? It strikes me that road user pricing is now going to be used as yet another way of hitting the motorist, only now it's going to include trucks, as well,’ he said.