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Toll protest lacks support
Page 18
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No one likes paying tolls but, as Guy Sheppard reports, few operators were prepared to put protests ahead of business by backing a boycott.
ANTI-TOLL CAMPAIGNERS plan to fight on despite receiving limited support for their first national day of protest.
Operators and motorists were urged to boycott toll bridges and tunnels across the country on 8 September but organisers concede it probably made no measurable difference to traffic volumes.
John McGoldrick, co-ordinator of the National Alliance Against Tolls, says: "We weren't really expecting a massive effect because most toll roads are situated in places where any alternative would involve a massive detour. "We're not going to give up even though it wasn't particularly successful and are hoping for a surge of interest later this year when the Skye toll is scrapped. Skye & Kyle Against Tolls have been campaigning far longer than anyone else.
The Road Haulage Association says it declined to back the protests because it could have caused members problems with their customer& And two operators who regularly use the Severn bridges say they knew nothing about the demo.
Chris Mason, director of RJ MasonTransport in Newport,says: "I probably would have supported it because I think it's bloody criminal we should have to pay a toll at all." His company pays more than £2,000 a month in Severn tolls Terry Hicks, MD of Monmouthbased Hicks Logistics, says he might also have given at least token support: "But at the end of the day the customer rules and if you're running late you can't afford to divert and take an extra hour to an hour and a half."
Neath councillor John Warman, who headed the boycott, says he received hundreds of messages of support:It's a launch pad for us in a way and we will keep getting better organised."
He hopes the boycott will become an annual event.