A Government u-turn over removing tolls for Warrington motorists using the new Mersey Gateway Bridge at Runcorn has sparked outrage from former Labour Parliamentary candidate Nick Bent.
Mr Bent, now a Stockton Heath Parish councillor who has stood against David Mowat at the last two general elections said: “This is a massive betrayal of Warrington motorists by Tory Ministers and the Tory MP. They made a promise two weeks before the General Election but have now blatantly broken it.”
“I said at the time it was an ‘election stunt’ and sadly I was right. Not only are the Tories trashing our local NHS and slashing education funding, they are also putting a big tax on driving to work.”
Nick Bent
In response to the announcement Warrington South MP David Mowat said: “I am very disappointed that the legal challenges could not be overcome. It makes a need for new bridges in Warrington even more important.”
Warrington residents are now set to face a toll due to Government fears it would spark legal challenges from neighbouring authorities at a cost of £604 million to the public purse.
In a written statement Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Andrew Jones said the Government announced in 2015 that it would look at the feasibility of extending Mersey Gateway bridge toll discounts to residents of Cheshire West & Chester and Warrington.
The Department had undertaken detailed work and evaluated options for how this could happen, what the costs would be and what this would do to the contracts already signed by Halton Borough Council to deliver the scheme and the tolling infrastructure.
The feasibility work, considered the legal position and the costs to the taxpayer and concluded that free tolling would not be extended beyond Halton Borough Council.
He said the Government had already provided £86m to Halton to develop the scheme, to pay for land and to deal with land contamination.
Once the scheme opens, the Government will also be providing a further substantial contribution of £288m to help fund both the cost of the bridge and also to increase the funds available to enable residents of Halton to use the bridge for free.
He said it was Government policy that users of estuarial crossings should help pay for the benefits they receive. The Mersey Gateway is no different. As is the case with the Dartford Crossings, an exception is to be made for residents of Halton given that the existing Silver Jubilee Crossing is the only road link between the two halves of the Borough.
Other users will have a range of frequent user discounts available to them to use a crossing that will deliver considerable congestion and journey time improvements to boost the region’s economy.
He added: “In evaluating the options open to the Government we have considered a number of issues. On the legal side, the feasibility work showed there would be a significant risk of a successful legal challenge to a decision to extend free tolling to some local Councils and not others. On the cost side extending free tolling to only a handful of local Councils would still be at a substantial cost to the taxpayer.”
He said an extension of user discounts to not just Cheshire West & Chester and Warrington, as originally suggested, but also to the other three authorities that neighbour Halton (Knowsley, Liverpool City Council and St Helens), would be at an estimated cost of £604m to the
public purse. If, as is the case with Halton, the cost was to be split between the Government and local authorities, £377m would fall to the five local Councils.
“For all these reasons we have taken the decision not to extend free tolling beyond Halton.” added Mr Jones
In April 2015, just weeks before the General Election former Chancellor George Osborne announced his intention to remove tolls on the new Runcorn Bridge for residents in Warrington – saving local drivers over £1,000 per year.
Welcoming the news at the time Mr Mowat said:“The last Labour Government introduced these tolls and I’m delighted that the Chancellor has confirmed that the next Conservative Government will scrap Labour’s tax on motorists and save Warrington drivers over £1,000 every year.”
He said the chancellor was reviewing the charges with a view to removing them for residents of Warrington and Chester West and Chester.
This would have saved Warrington motorists who regular use the Mersey crossing between Widnes and Runcorn well over £1,000-a-year.
Meanwhile the Mersey Gateway Bridge is on target for opening this autumn (2017).
4 Comments
Disappointing to say the least 🙁
It’s an utter disgrace Gary.
This decision is an utter disgrace. This is blatant lying by the Conservative party in order to steal votes from Warrington residents. I have a small amount of sympathy for David Mowat, in that he was also probably taken in by the deceit of George Osborne, but ultimately he has benefited from these lies in getting elected.
George Osborne did not make his promise conditional on anything but the Conservative party getting elected into government. This is an even bigger lie than that told by Nick Clegg and his infamous tuition fee pledge – at least Clegg could point to the fact that the LibDems did not form a majority government and had no power to enforce the policy. On this occasion, the Conservatives had the power in their hands, but now we see they never had any intention of making good their promise.
I will personally be campaigning against this decision, and I urge every other Warrington resident to make the Conservatives regret the day they lied to us. They deserve our contempt.
Well it was only promised for Warrington and West Cheshire. Then Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens held out the begging bowl which would have left no one to pay but lorries. That wouldn’t work any better than the M6 toll did! The problem is those councils and weak civil servants. However WBC would have had to make a contribution without tolls to fund it. The cuts in services would have been severe but obviously some of you think that cost is worth it just to slag another party off. I don’t.