This is something that I know is worrying forces families in the UK.  The govenment are proposing a road use charge of upto £1.40 per mile on certain roads at certain times.

With lots of service men and women living away from their families this could make it impossible for weekend visits to take place.

For my own family, we could not buy a house in the area of my husbands base and were worried about being homeless once he left the Navy because of the state of UK council housing.  We felt that we had no choice but to try to buy now but this means that my husband lives approximately 240 miles away from me in the week.  At the cost of £1.40 per mile he would have to pay £336.00 to come home and the same to go back to the base.  That's £672.00 per week to come home, not including petrol costs. 

We couldn't do that and would be left with the choice of selling our home at a loss (penalties for selling within 2 years of buying), renting it out at a rent that wouldn't cover mortgage and insurance, Andrew leaving the forces or us splitting up under the pressure.

I know one service man who comes back every week to help his single mother take care of his downs syndrome brother.  A charge like that would stop him from coming home and giving her a much needed few hours break in the week.

I don't think the government has thought this through for Forces Families and others who live and work away from each other.  I've got to say that it's an issue that frightens me.  I know we have to think of the environment but to use public transport my husband is facing train prices of £100 plus per week or 12 hour journeys on coaches for a one way trip.  That's 24 hours of our weekend together taken in travelling instead of four hours each way.  Public transport at the moment is not a safe or viable option.

What do other families think about this charge and how it will affect them?

Ken joined the army late compared to alot of people. He joined in 2001 as he had always had the dream to be a firefighter and he was too old to do this in civy st. Being part of the army has made me realize how much I am part of another small group out there. As a kid I was an "army brat" dad was  in the army so I was used to what happened and the usual moving etcc... But I never really realized the stresses of being the army Wife........ Ken works at Oakey Aviation centre making sure none of the helicopters crash and burn so to speak....... and if they do that they put them out....... One thing I do know is I will probably never learn the army lingo hehe..... Hubby comes home and starts telling me about his day and he talks in acrynoms everything in the army is in letters. I will never catch on. The army has been pretty good to us but they helped us to buy our fist home and then to sell it. And when you move wow. Just pack your clothes and walk out the removalists do the rest....... Ken is considering getting out but.... we are due for a transfer next year and there is only 4 places in Australia we can go and with the family life we have leaving the state could go down not tooo well. But we will see..

Take care

Angie

Or this Blog started at any rate.

I'm glat that the Cook Clan have joined the group, I was feeling a little like Billy No Mates in here on my own.  Thank you to all nine of you in the Cook Clan, I'm looking forward to reading your blogs. 

I'm back to having a part time husband since our big move, I am in Yorkshire and Andrew is 250 miles away in Somerset.  He comes home at the weekend at the moment but we are having some fun and games with the Navy now and he may soon be away so I will have to get used to being a long distance wife pretty quickly.  We have also had no end of trouble getting out of our married quarter and into our own home.  We paid the MOD cleaners to go in and clean for us and then the house was failed for being dirty!  Those cleaners were in big trouble from me for that.  The joys of married quarters I suppose.

Andrew is trying to get into ship based workshops which will give him a three day weekend when the ship is in dock but longer away from home when the ship is at sea.  We think that this will work in our favour in the long run but I can't say I am looking forward to him being at sea for four or five months in a row.

I guess thats forces life though and having watched my Aunt and Uncle cope with a forces marriage for the past 25 years I can't pretend that I wasn't expecting it.