READING the small print is a must before signing a contract, and the same goes before casting your vote.

One party seeking election has the nerve to bill unwanted national road pricing as a ‘fair deal for motorists’.

They will introduce it after the next Parliament – possibly a few years away, and claim that motorists will be no worse off.

Just where will they get the £60bn needed from, not to mention the large running costs?

Another party rules out national road pricing in the next Parliament, but this is disingenuous as they are fully signed up to European Union proposals and have been putting in the technology piecemeal at a local level. They also support workplace parking taxes.

Another party supports road pricing for lorries, but the technology could easily be used to track the rest of us. They have the gall to consider tolls to provide new roads and even on existing roads, including motorways.

Drivers already pay around £50bn a year for paltry investment; the new and repaired roads that we badly need have already been paid for in advance.

Opinion poll research has shown that the driver vote will be key.

I urge voters to ask candidates some searching questions about where they personally stand before casting their vote.

BRIAN MACDOWALL, Campaign Director, Association of British Drivers