The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Papers reveal £10 Forth toll floated
Motorists faced a £10 toll to travel over the new Forth bridge under early plans during Jack Mcconnell’s Labourled executive.
Cabinet papers from 2006, which can be revealed for the first time today, show how ministers discussed using tolls to pay for a new crossing.
The move was being considered in spite of the fact that the Scottish Executive, which had removed the controversial charges from the Skye Bridge in 2004, was facing an angry backlash against existing tolls on the Forth Road Bridge and the Tay Road Bridge at the time.
The Courier was leading a campaign that forced a rethink on the levy, before the SNP government delivered on its promise to scrap it after coming to power in 2007.
Newly released documents show how the two issues came to a head during a key Cabinet meeting on March 1 2006.
Transport Minister Tavish Scott won approval from colleagues for a plan to remove existing tolls on the Erskine Bridge but to keep them on the Tay and Forth crossings.
At the same meeting, the Cabinet agreed to order Transport Scotland to start drawing up plans for a “replacement” crossing of the Forth, after experts warned corroded cables on the existing road bridge meant it might have to close to HGVS by 2013 and to cars by 2019.
Mr Scott’s paper estimated the new bridge could cost between £500 million and £1.1 billion, with the most “optimistic” assessment suggesting it could be complete by 2014.
It discussed “indications of likely toll levels”, concluding that the project could be “self-funding” at a £10 flat toll per northbound vehicle, or £5 each way.
The charge for the Forth
Road Bridge was £1 when the tolls were scrapped in 2008.
“Importantly, tolls can be justified as a contribution to construction costs and should be retained as an option for funding major bridge construction and investment,” the 2006 report to Cabinet said.
“They can play a part in addressing congestion, and should be more closely aligned with road user charging. Using tolls to fund maintenance is not a compelling justification alone.
“Based on these principles, the review concludes that different approaches are required for different bridges.”
However, the announcement that fees would be scrapped on the Erskine Bridge, but not for the Tay or the Forth, helped to turbocharge the local campaign against tolls.
On March 30, in the same month as the Cabinet decision, ministers were forced to announce a new review of the tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges.
A note to Cabinet highlighted that “The Dundee Courier is leading the campaign on the Tay”.
It added: “A report is expected to be with ministers in the autumn. Public interest will be intense, and any timetable will likely be criticised as being too slow.”
Labour and the Lib Dems eventually committed to scrapping the Tay tolls and removing some charges from the Forth, but were ousted from government by Alex Salmond’s SNP a few weeks later.
Glenrothes SNP MP Peter Grant was a councillor in Fife in 2006, going on to lead the local authority from 2007 to 2012.
He said: ““There was a very strong feeling that if it was justifiable to lift the tolls on the Erskine Bridge, there was no way you could defend keeping them on the Forth and Tay bridges.”