TONY Blair is to send an email to the million-plus people who signed an online petition against road pricing telling them it is "surely part of the answer."
The strength of feeling against Department of Transport plans for a national scheme reached such levels at one point that it crashed the Prime Minister's Internet site.
The petition calls the policy "sinister and wrong" and warns the charge would be unfair to those who live away from their families, and poorer people.
The petition appears on a new section of Downing Street's website which was set up in November last year to allow anyone to address and deliver a petition directly to the Prime Minister.
Mr Blair said it "is an opportunity not because I share the petitioners' views - I don't - but because I know the country needs to have a full debate on how we tackle road congestion and this petition has helped spark it".
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