Thousands sign petition to axe crossing charges

APETITION calling for charges to cross the River Mersey including bridges in Halton to be removed has attracted thousands of signatures.

A online document on 38 Degrees entitled Scrap Mersey Tolls is addressed to Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liverpool City Region metro mayor Steve Rotheram.

The petition said with the opening of the Mersey Gateway and the tolling of the Silver Jubilee Bridge when it reopens combined with the Mersey Tunnels means there are now four toll ‘barriers’ along a ‘substantial length’ of the river.

It said the tolls effectively divide the Liverpool City Region in two and that the ‘barriers’ damage both the ‘local and wider’ economies and divide ‘communities, families and friends’.

For the Mersey Gateway, the unregistered toll rates are £2 per trip for cars, £6 per trip for light goods vehicles and £8 per trip for heavy goods vehicles.

Motorbikes and local buses are not subject to tolls.

Runcorn and Widnes residents who are eligible for the local user discount scheme – which includes those in council tax bands A to F – can pay a £10 annual fee and register to guarantee unlimited personal crossings at no extra cost for a 12-month period.

Discounts of up to 10% on individual journeys are available, as well as monthly travel passes.

At time of writing, the petition had reached almost 2,200 signatures.

Concerning the Silver Jubilee Bridge, the petition said: “This bridge linking the north bank of the Mersey at Widnes with the south bank at Runcorn was opened in 1961 and carried the A533.

“The £3m cost was mainly met by the Government with contributions from Cheshire and Lancashire County Councils.

“It was never tolled in its 56 year history.

“It has now been closed to traffic and when it re-opens it will become a tolled bridge crossing, making it the only free bridge crossing in Britain ever to have a toll imposed upon it.

“We want the plan to toll the bridge to be immediately abandoned.

“The bridge maintenance and repairs should be financed in the same way as it has been for over half a century – from Government highways grants.”

Regarding the recently opened Mersey Gateway Bridge, the petition said: “There are many issues with this scheme, but we will mention just two.

“The council and Government said that all such new bridges have to be tolled, but a larger bridge over the Forth was opened by The Queen in September 2017 and is not tolled.

“In fact most ‘estuarial’ crossings in Britain are not tolled, including all those in North Wales and the numerous Thames crossings in the Greater London Authority area, and of course the Silver Jubilee Bridge was not tolled when it opened in 1961 and has remained untolled – till now.

“The other issue is the effect on congestion in the wider North West road network.

“The tolling of the Mersey Gateway Bridge means that a significant number of drivers and businesses will actively avoid using it and are diverting to areas with free bridge crossings several miles upriver, adding to and even causing congestion in the greater road network in those areas.

“We want the Government to buyout the private finance contract.

“This is likely to cost no more than the Government are already committed to spend to support the Gateway tolls, and the cost would be less than one week of one year of the taxes on drivers.

“The bridge should then be maintained by Highways England as part of the national road network.”