Decision on Erskine Bridge tolls
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• Mr Gordon Campbell, Secretary of State for Scotland, has announced his decision on the level of tolls for the new Erskine Bridge, following the public inquiry in Glasgow last December.
The charges will be 15p for light goods vehicles and cars, 25p for scheduled service buses, and 50p for other vehicles except that. there will be a reduction to 30p per journey for heavy commercial vehicles which use the bridge regularly and frequently. There will also be a charge of £5 for escorted vehicles and exemptions from tolls for certain categories of vehicles, including ambulances, police and fire services vehicles.
The new tolls will now be incorporated in an Order made by the Secretary of State, which will shortly be laid before Parliament. The tolls are expected to come into operation when the bridge opens on July 2.
The Secretary of State has not accepted a recommendation by the reporter, Mr W. A. Elliott, QC, that the charge for escorted vehicles—vehicles carrying abnormal loads which need an escort over the bridge—should be reduced from £5 to £3. In a decision letter it is pointed out that this charge is intended, broadly speaking, to cover the cost of the service, that there were no objections to it, and that in the view of the Secretary of State a charge of £3 would not cover the cost of providing escorts over the bridge. Otherwise the decision is in
accordance with the reporter's recommendations.
FTA reaction to the decision was to forecast a "massive avoidance" of the new bridge, with commercial vehicles continuing to use the toll-free tunnel at Whiteineh, Glasgow. Mr J. Welsh, the Association's Scottish division secretary. said he thought that the Minister had been especially ill-advised on the 30p "concession". This was a replica of the scheme used on the Forth Road Bridge, where it had proved an -administrative morass", costing more to the operator to use than the saving he was likely to obtain.