And with the technology...

And with the technology already in place, it would enable the Government to rapidly introduce UK-wide tolls, as detailed in a leaked ministerial letter last week.

We register around 55 million vehicle movements a day - that"s 600 per second!

By combining the latest hi-tech, transmitter-equipped number plates, called e-Plates, with the familiar tar-strip loop monitoring devices already built into our roads, experts believe that our movements could be relayed to a central surveillance location in real-time.

Graham Muspratt of Golden River traffic monitoring systems - which manufactures the loops - admitted the chipped plates could be used to keep tabs on how many miles we clock up. "It"s certainly a possibility," he said.

"At present, when you drive you"re never more than about 20 miles from a piece of our equipment. We register around 55 million vehicle movements a day - that"s 600 per second! This live data can then be relayed to a central point using mobile phone technology." Although e-Plates are still undergoing development, a spokesman for the company agreed that the system could "be a way of introducing road charging".

He added that it"s more reliable than CCTV monitoring of London"s Congestion Charge Zone because e-Plates are harder to clone than normal registrations.