Controvesial first year for Gateway

SATURDAY marked one year since the £200m Mersey Gateway bridge opened its £2-a-go crossings to the public – and what a year it has been.

Aside from giving thousands of drivers a quicker and less congested way to cross the River Mersey each day, the new bridge even attracted a Royal visit to Widnes from Her Majesty The Queen and Meghan Markle. And it is very beautiful.

But despite these benefits, it has been mired in controversy – not least because of a watchdog ruling that found the tolls to be not legally enforceable.

Then there has been the countless complaints about Merseyflow customer service, combined with the fact that people simply do not like paying tolls.

A year on from opening, what impact has the new bridge really had on driv- ers in the region?

Here is a look back at some of some of its most controversial moments. ● Disabled pensioner stranded after car broke down – The Mersey Gateway crossing board’s (MGC) breakdown policy came under fire in March when a disabled pensioner who broke down on the bridge was stranded for two hours before his car was towed – leaving him, facing a £180 bill to get his vehicle back.

Under Mersey Gateway by-laws set by Halton Borough Council, drivers who break down on the bridge are not permitted to arrange their own vehicle recovery and must pay a minimum fee of £150 plus VAT for an authorised person to tow the car, plus a further £20 plus VAT per day for storage if drivers cannot pay the recovery fee on the spot.

Recovery operations are restricted to ensure ‘all broken down and stranded vehicles are removed with an accepta- ble time frame of 30 minutes’ which didn’t happen in this case.

The pensioner’s fine was eventually dropped but it exposed a range of hidden charges drivers might be liable to pay if they are unfortunate enough to have an accident on the bridge. ● Tolls found to be unenforceable – Things really blew up in April when a landmark Traffic Penalty Tribunal (TPT) ruling found that the tolls were not legally enforceable because Halton Council, the charging authority, had not specified the price of the tolls clearly in its Road User Charging Scheme Order (RUCSO).

The RUCSO only provided a range of what the price would be likely to be (eg £0-£2.50) – a mistake which was found to be in breach of the Transport Act 2000.

At a review hearing in May, the adjudicator Edward Solomons asked how anyone who didn’t know there was a toll, and then consulted the charging order after receiving a fine for not paying the £2, would actually have proof that such a charge was in place.

The mistake was deemed a ‘procedural impropriety’ – giving hope to thousands of drivers that they might be entitled to get a refund on their fines and toll payments. ● Refunds row – Halton Council contested the TPT ruling in May, but it was upheld by Mr Solomons later that month, after which a legal battle over whether tolls should be refunded ensued.

Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman, an outspoken critic of the council, was adamant that everyone who paid a toll or fine under the invalid RUCSO was entitled to a refund because their money had been obtained ‘unlawfully’.

And Dr Adam Snow, a legal expert in road fines, said hundreds of Penalty Charge Notices (PCNS) should be reversed because of a mistake in the wording of the letters for fines that was exposed by Mr Solomons at the second hearing.

However, hopes were squashed when, after months of keeping quiet, Halton Council said a TPT decision did not have the authority to invalidate the enforceability of tolls and only applied to five specific cases. ● Merseyflow customer service agent caught snoring on the phone – The campaign for refunds has died down in recent months, but that has not stopped toll operator Merseyflow from being in the firing line for its approach to customer service.

From telling a man who was wrongly fined to take his complaint up with the police, to charging a woman whose inoperative car was carried over the bridge on a lorry, on several occasions Merseyflow has hit the headlines for its ‘shambolic’ payment system.

But things truly took a turn for the worse last month when a man couldn’t pay his toll because a member of staff was snoring on the other end of the phone. ● PCNs on the increase – The Mersey Gateway generated an income of £20m in its first six months, almost a quarter of which was made through fines.

Some campaigners say the lack of signs on the bridge mean many drivers are not aware there is a toll system in place, or simply forget to pay because of the 24-hour deadline.

Bosses from the Mersey Gateway Crossing Board have insisted they are looking at ways to minimise the number of fines issued but figures from July revealed PCNs were being issued at an all time high, at the rate of about 860,000 per year.

Despite this surge, Scrap Mersey Tolls (SMT) campaigners have urged drivers not to be scared to contest a PCN, because they have a strong track record of winning.

Figures from the TPT show that out of 3,810 PCNs appealed to the tribunal between October 2017 and May this year, not one case has been found in favour of Halton council.