Should we see it as inevitable that road tolls will be imposed on Tyneside’s busiest routes?
PROPOSALS FOR CUTTING POLLUTION GET A MIXED REACTION
ARE plans to impose tolls on some of Tyneside’s roads “ridiculous” or a longoverdue response to a pollution crisis?
The prospect of drivers being hit with new charges has sparked fierce debate, after Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside councils revealed their ideas for improving air quality this week.
There are two competing charging options being considered by the councils: a clean air zone (CAZ) around the centres of Newcastle and Gateshead which high-polluting vehicles could be charged either £12.50 or £50 a day to enter; or a toll of £1.70 for cars and £3.40 for lorries to cross the Tyne, Swing, and Redheugh Bridges.
Additional measures to help meet a Government order to reduce emissions could also involve excluding certain vehicles from parts of the city centre or limiting their access to the Central Motorway.
The Newcastle Hackney Carriage Drivers Association has been vocal in its opposition to a CAZ that could force taxi drivers to pay £12.50 a day, but has now also branded the idea of a bridges toll “ridiculous”.
Association chairman John Hirst said: “£1.70 for any motorist to cross the bridge? You could be on minimum wage, living in Gateshead and working in Newcastle and you would have to find £3.40 a day.
“It’s going to be bad for Newcastle. You might think taxi drivers would be in favour of it because it would mean fewer people driving into the city.
“But it is not just about that. We want to be promoting the city and improving the economy, not putting people off coming here.
“This is all happening when other services are being cut back and it is the working class who are going to suffer.”
A Newcastle Public Transport Users Group spokesman called for bus passengers not the be “unfairly penalised for using a more efficient and sustainable form of transport”.
The spokesman added: “We are also pleased to see measures that will offer both a carrot and a stick to help people switch to more sustainable means of travel – a clean air charge will discourage people from driving polluting vehicles into areas of high air pollution at the same time as raising revenue for investment in cheaper, more reliable and more extensive public transport.
“Any money raised from charges or tolls must therefore be ring-fenced to be spent on improved infrastructure and operations of local public transport services.”
A CAZ would result in a surplus of £43m over five years, while the toll system would produce a five-year profit of £17.5m – all of which would be reinvested in highways and public transport improvements, the councils say.
Coun Judith Wallace, leader of the North Tyneside Conservatives, said that any charge must not have an adverse impact on “people who really have no choice but to use those routes”.
She added: “If people need to use those roads for work then it is going to cause serious problems for them.
“We also need to be careful that this is not just tokenism and will not be hitting people’s wallets just to make a point.”
Green Party spokesperson Taymar Pitman welcomed the long-awaited plans.
She said: “Air pollution is affecting the health of thousands of people in Newcastle so we’re glad to see that clean air plans are finally being put out to consultation by the council.
“The Green Party has been campaigning on this issue for a number of years. It’s alarming that it has taken so long to see action and we’re still no clearer on what will finally be proposed. We need to see radical steps