WARRINGTON South MP David Mowat has expressed his “bitter disappointment” that the government have failed to deliver a discount scheme for the new Runcorn Bridge.
The u-turn which has been attacked by former Labour Warrington South parliamentary candidate Nick Bent as “a massive betrayal of Warrington motorists,” who now face costs of around £1,000 a year for regular use of the Mersey Gateway toll bridge.
In a letter to Mr Mowat, Transport Minister Andrew Jones MP explained that Warrington could not be a special case and that any decision to extend tolling to one neighbouring authority would have to include all the neighbouring authorities – including the City of Liverpool and Knowsley – at an estimated cost of £604m.
Mr Jones noted that the cost of extending the scheme would come at a substantial cost to the taxpayer and that the Government was prioritising other transport improvements in the region – including the Warrington waterfront scheme.
Drivers from Warrington will still be eligible for frequent user discounts once the bridge opens in Autumn this year.
David Mowat MP said: “For the last 18 months I have been working with ministers and officials to make a special case for Warrington. The new bridge will be less than a kilometre from the Borough boundary and the original Public Inquiry showed that Warrington would be the worst-hit by drivers trying to avoid tolls.
“Unfortunately, other local authorities have tried to piggyback on this process and the legal opinion is that any scheme open to one neighbouring authority has to be open to all. £600m is an eye-watering sum (especially when it could be used to subsidise all bridge users, not just those who use it regularly) and cannot be considered in isolation from other local transport priorities – particularly the construction of the two bridges in Warrington.
“I’m bitterly disappointed that the Government has not been able to deliver on this pledge but it has only encouraged me to redouble my efforts to campaign for the critical infrastructure improvements we need right here in Warrington, such as the new bridges and the new station in west Warrington.”
5 Comments
Most of us are bitterly disappointed the due diligence and feasibility considerations were not apparently conducted until well after the two local Tory heavyweights (Osborne and Mowat) apparently pledged toll free access for the people of Warrington to the new (and old) Mersey bridges ahead of the last general election.
“other local authorities have tried to piggyback on this process”…
Is this an “alternative fact”?
Never mind the activities of other local authorities. What tangible and positive steps did our local authority, WBC, engage in for Warrington motorists at the public inquiry before it and subsequently to make the case for toll free bridge use? Did anyone of any local civic standing (leaving aside the dissembling MP David Mowat) engage positively with those determining bridge usage/charges on behalf of Warrington motorists? Or was it a case of everyone standing aside, and relying on the worthless assurances of two mountebank MPs Osborne and Mowat?
Well to many round here it might seem so, but it can be found in the written statement to the House of Common by The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Andrew Jones) on 24th January. (link to Hansard – https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-01-24/debates/17012478000009/MerseyGatewayTransport)
I don’t call a Ministerial Statements in Hansard an “alternative fact”, do you?
It’s irrelevant that others tried to piggyback on to it.
You made a pre election promise in a constituency that was considered tight.
You have potentially swayed an election by offering a freebie.
If you have any honour or decency you will resign with immediate effect.
Every word you utter from now on is suspect and every promise meaningless.
Resign.