A bridge too fare
FURIOUS LOCALS ARE NOW PAYING ROAD TOLLS FOR COMMUTERS STUCK IN LONG TRAFFIC JAMS WAITING TO DRIVE OVER SHIP CANAL
Please just for an hour in the evening and morning, get rid of the charge Marshall Butters
COMMUTERS who face daily tailbacks to cross a toll bridge for 12p have been saved their misery – as local residents are now paying for them all in one go.
In recent years, motorists have each gone through the timeconsuming process of handing their pennies to an attendant in the booth on Warburton Toll Bridge, the only route across the River Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal between the M6 and M60 motorways.
It has caused hours of delays on Warburton Bridge Road and surrounding routes as hundreds of drivers await their turn, with reports that gridlock sometimes lasts from 3pm to 10pm.
The traffic has even prompted the local bus operator to cut services around the area.
But desperate locals have found a temporary solution.
Residents in nearby Warburton village, who claim the privatelyowned bridge has left them ‘prisoners in their own homes,’ have started bulk-paying the toll to ease the congestion – handing over around £120 a week.
Each afternoon, Diane Grant, 65, often aided by Marshall Butters, 28, braves the cold to walk down the road from their homes in Warburton, Trafford, to pay up to £30 and wave through hundreds of drivers in super-quick time.
Initially, Diane paid the fee out of her own pocket but thanks to a Facebook campaign by the Warburton Toll Bridge Action Group, they now receive donations.
Many drivers also drop cash at Diane’s cafe in Rixton, while some even post money through her letterbox.
When the M.E.N. joined Diane on Thursday evening, most motorists shouted a ‘thank you!’ from their windows as she waved them through.
Diane said: “I just find it so upsetting seeing people sitting there for hours in traffic. I suppose I’m quite a caring person and I want to help out. “The past two years it’s got very, very bad. On certain nights it can backlog for miles – if there’s an accident on the M6 it’s even worse. It used to be so nice living here but now it’s chaos. “Now they want to build more houses – it’s only going to get worse.” Peel Ports, which own the bridge, has told the M.E.N. it is planning an automated toll scheme as part of bridge improvements.
But Diane, who says Peel is making money out of their goodwill because some drivers will have paid for a return 25p ticket, is appealing for a suspension of the toll during rush hours in the meantime.
Four busy routes converge on to the bridge on Paddock Lane. Congestion is badly affected by incidents on the M6 and M60, which are fairly frequent, locals say.
Marshall, 28, a dad-of-two, says he and his wife now have to pay for taxis to get their children to school because Network Warrington has cancelled some morning and evening buses due to congestion.
He is calling on Peel to suspend the charges during the rush hours.
He said: “It’s a lovely gesture from people donating the money, it helps people get home, but it’s not a resolution for us.
“We are taking time out of our day to help and it’s not something we should have to do. We want Peel Ports to fix this issue.
“Children are coming home from school, people are coming home from work – please just for an hour in the evening and morning, get rid of the charge.”
The toll was created after the passing of the Rixton and Warburton Toll Bridge Act 1863, which gave the Manchester Ship Canal Company the right to build the bridge and charge those using it.
It originally cost one person on horseback or in a cart 1p (18p in 2017 money) to cross.