ANTI road toll campaigners have been told to scrap posters suggesting drivers will be forced to pay £5 per day if the scheme is introduced, because they are misleading.

One of the posters used by Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART) shows a fat-cat style boss with the slogan "£5 a day won't even buy me a cigar. The Toll Tax: Keeps the roads free for the rich."

A second, showing a picture of a pouting blonde in a business suit bears the wording: "STOP MOANING. What's £5 a day. The Toll Tax: Keeps the roads free for the rich."

MART maintains both are fair, because it believes £5 would be a typical charge for a return trip to work if congestion charging is introduced, and it says there is a possibility that many people might in fact pay more.

The Advertising Standards Authority - the ad industry's watchdog - has upheld a complaint however, on the basis that it understands £5 is the current maximum daily charge proposed under the scheme and the posters don't make this clear.

And it says though it could be the average charge in practice, and could also be subject to price increases, it was not possible to determine this yet, because there are no supporting statistics.

Complaints about two other posters used by MART as part of its campaign to get plans for congestion charging scrapped, have been dismissed by the ASA which ruled they were not likely to be misleading.

One poster, showing a picture of an angry circus clown, has the slogan: "Just pay up and keep quiet. We know best. Tagged, Tracked and Taxed. The Toll Tax."

Another showing pictures of professional workers has the wording: "ON YER BIKE. Nurses, Firemen, Teachers. Manchester Motorists. Tagged. Tracked and Taxed."

The clown poster was criticised as misleading as the complainant said it implied that the proposed charge was to be introduced against the wishes of motorists and without their views taken into account, where in fact the complainant believed there had been extensive consultation.

The second poster was misleading it was alleged, because though cars might carry a tag which would register when they entered or left congestion zones, there would be no continuous monitoring of a vehicle's position, which was implied by MART.

Independent surveys

The ASA dismissed the complaint over the clown poster, saying it acknowledged that it was intended to make the point that there had been a number of local independent surveys with results indicating that a majority of the people polled in them, objected to the proposed congestion charge in Greater Manchester.

It noted that the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities had carried out public consultation exercises, including a survey of the general public which found 53 per cent in agreement with the principle of road pricing.

It ruled however that the `partisan nature' of the poster and its image was likely to be clear to viewers who were likely to understand the wording as an expression of MART's point of view on a matter of public controversy.

The ASA said the wording in the second poster referred to both the fact that vehicles would be tracked when leaving and entering the congestion zones, and to the proposed use of continuous satellite tracking of some vehicles as part of the scheme.

It said it noted that a `tag and beacon' system was proposed as the majority initial method of charging, and this was intended to involve the registration and tagging of vehicles and the recording of every passage through a charge point by a beacon.

It ruled: "Because we considered the term `tracked' indicated both that vehicles would be recorded at points where they entered and left the congestion charge zones as well as in some instances being continuously monitored by satellite, we concluded that the ads did not mislead."

Manchester Against Road Tolls maintains that motorists had never been specifically consulted about congestion charging and it believed a `very important voice' had been ignored.

It said AGMA surveyed just 5000 people from a population of 2.5 million across Greater Manchester, and it did not believe this was a large enough sample to be representative.

MART said all information of the toll scheme had consistently referred to inner and outer rings of the city at peak times. It said given the number of people who worked in the city centre and would be unable to change their working hours, £5 would be a typical charge for a return trip to work.

It said the exact boundary location of the proposed inner ring had not been revealed and nor had AGMA answered questions about proposals to expand the charging zones, which it understood to mean that many people might pay more than £5 to journey in and out at peak times.

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