Controversial plans to ease congestion on Britain's roads came under fire yesterday from MPs across the House of Commons who accused ministers of failing to appreciate the scale of the changes.
In a heated debate on the traffic management bill, the veteran Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody warned that dangerous drivers could escape prosecution, while innocent motorists could face unfair punishment.
Ms Dunwoody raised doubts about plans to hand police powers to outsiders. Under the bill, uniformed Traffic Officers will be appointed to patrol motorways to get traffic moving after road incidents or breakdowns. Local authority parking attendants will also be given powers to impose fines of up to £100 for minor motoring offences such as clogging up box junctions or ignoring "no right turn" signs.
Ms Dunwoody, the chair of the Commons transport select committee, told MPs: "We are creating a group of people who will have the power to take major decisions which could enable those who have been involved in serious accidents to escape prosecution, which would enable large numbers of people who have considered they have been hard done to find themselves in the position where they have no recourse to any kind of appeal.
"Above all we could see the situation where the general public begins to question the common sense of the House of Commons. When that happens, frankly we are all at risk."
Speaking as the bill received its second reading, the Crewe and Nantwich MP warned that motorists would end up "rampaging through the pages of our newspapers complaining bitterly that those who were administering traffic laws were neither police officers nor properly trained".
She added: "This is quite a major change. We are creating for the first time, almost since the time of Robert Peel, a new group of officers who are not police officers, who are not town beadles, who are not collectors of little bits of papers to stick on parked motor cars."
Alistair Darling, the transport secretary, mounted a strong defence of the bill, which would improve the state of Britain's roads. "The measures in this bill will allow us also to manage our roads more effectively and to make better use of the road space we have got," he said.
Mr Darling insisted the police already had enough pressures on their time. "Surely it makes sense that when the police have so many other pressures... that things like keeping bus lanes clear or trying to dissuade people from going through a yellow light, parking in the middle of a box junction, stopping traffic from moving, could be left to people that are responsible from a local authority."
But Damian Green, the shadow transport secretary, echoed Ms Dunwoody's criticisms. He described the measure as "a wasted opportunity promising more bureaucracy, more confusion and more anger among motorists as they realise the full extent of the disappointment they face".
Trained police officers would be able to exercise better judgment in some "special circumstances". A "real sense of grievance" would be created for the motorist if police were absent.
