By Steve Bargeton, political editor

MINISTERS CONFIRMED yesterday they have no plans to bring in controversial road tolling after a report concluded it would be too costly and difficult to develop a nationwide scheme. However, the idea of drivers paying a charge per mile remains a long-term objective.

The Scottish Executive is committed to reducing congestion on key trunk routes such as the Forth Road Bridge and the M8 motorway.

One idea, favoured by Scottish and UK ministers, is a road-pricing scheme covering the whole of the UK.

In simple terms, drivers would pay per mile with the tariff varying depending on the time of day or night. To compensate for the cost of using the road, road tax would be scrapped and fuel tax greatly reduced.

“Ministers are not talking about adding another level of taxation,” said an Executive spokesman.

A road-charging scheme would have to be UK-wide and would require technology fitted to record the movement of every vehicle.

A study for the Scottish Executive published this week considered “taxi style” road charges where there is a initial flat fee combined with a distance-based charging scheme.

Such a scheme could involve motorists paying as much as a £1 a mile on busy commuter routes.

But researchers concluded that, given the “no” vote on congestion charging in Edinburgh and the time and money that would be required to develop a workable national congestion charging scheme, “such schemes are unlikely to be introduced in the near future.”

The report also suggested more park-and-ride schemes could be used to get commuters out of their cars in congested city centres.

The report found that in Britain as a whole the number of long distance commuters increased by about a third between 1991 and 2001.

In addition, the average trip length for most journeys, including travel to work, has been rising steadily over time. However, a high proportion of long-distance commuters believe that public transport is not an alternative option for them.

The Executive spokeswoman said that while road pricing is long-term aspiration, there are no plans to introduce it. “We do think we will have to introduce road user charging in the future,” she said. “However, any such scheme would have to be part of a wider United Kingdom motoring taxation initiative.”