Darling scraps Birt plan for toll roads

Alistair Darling is to rebuff plans for the new generation of tolled "super-highways" proposed by the Prime Minister's transport "tsar", Lord Birt, as part of a wholesale review of the Government's transport policies.

The new Secretary of State for Transport is to "overhaul" the Government's 10-year transport plan, condemned by an influential group of MPs last week, and is signalling that motorists will have to accept constraints to stop traffic growing indefinitely.

His approach, if carried through, is an important change of direction in the Government's transport policy, which has been increasingly driven towards more road-building and away from restraints on the private car.

The Independent on Sunday's asthma campaign has been pressing the Government to take action to cut traffic, a goal set by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, five years ago this week.

Mr Prescott had said that the Government would have failed if in five years there were not "far fewer journeys by car". Official Department of Transport figures show that traffic has increased by 7.2 per cent since he spoke.

Now Mr Darling will take a substantial new look at the future of transport in his planned review of the £180bn, 10-year plan, which the House of Commons Select Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions last week described as "incomprehensible", "incoherent" and "unbalanced". He is expected to mount an overhaul of its contents, while falling significantly short of scrapping it altogether. Stephen Byers's departure has given the Government an opportunity to grasp this difficult policy area.

Mr Darling, though anxious not to attack Lord Birt personally, is seen as "negative" about building super-toll motorways – the former BBC director-general's first big idea.

The Transport Secretary will make public transport improvements his priority and will look again at the issue of congestion charging, but wants to avoid being seen as "anti-motorist". He is said to be "more relaxed" about its introduction – a shift from the hostile attitude taken by his predecessor on the issue.

Initial schemes, devolved by local authorities, are already in effect. And Mr Darling has accepted the principle that congestion must be dealt with – and paid for.

But broadening that out to national congestion charging, as proposed by Professor David Begg's Integrated Transport Commission – who suggested "big brother" satellite tracking to meter and charge drivers for every journey they take on Britain's roads – is not likely to form part of the revised plan.

Mr Darling is officially described as "studiously neutral" on road-pricing schemes. His focus will be on making improvements to the public transport network a priority, in particular in London and the South-east.

A senior Whitehall insider said Mr Darling was keen to "woo" London, where negotiations continue over the public-private partnership deal for London Underground and where problems with overcrowded commuter trains and delays are at their worst.

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for transport, said Britons now spent 505 million hours a year on crowded trains. He added: "One of Labour's first actions in coming to power was to regulate the transport of animals on the railways. But ... they've allowed more and more people to travel in conditions which are not fit for animals."