Liverpool region drivers protest over tunnel toll price hikes

Placard waving protesters won extensive backing from drivers when they staged a protest over a hike in toll charges on the Mersey Tunnels

The increase that came into effect at midnight on Saturday saw the cost of a one-way journey for a car increase by 10 pence to £1.50p.

The Mersey Tunnels Users Association (MTUA) mounted a demonstration against the move on a bridge at Oakdale Road, Wallasey.

A snapshot survey showed that more than 70 per cent of passing motorists honked their horns in support of the protest's aim to have tolls abolished.

Wirral West Conservative MP Esther McVey, a long-standing opponent of the tolls, turned-out to join the protest and to wave a placard "Say NO to the tolls increase".

Esther McVey said: "The operation of the tunnels should be taken out of the hands of Merseytravel. It is just not appropriate to have a toll road controlled by a public transport authority.

"The effect of the tunnel tolls do tremendous damage to the economy of the whole region but of the Wirral in particular and I would like to see them drastically reduced or abolished."

John McGoldrick, spokesman for the MTUA said that he believed that if it wasn't for the Tunnel Users group then toll increases would be higher and more frequent.

He said: "The only way that we will ever stop increases altogether and eventually get the tolls removed is if more people let the politicians know their views."

He also said that many people would still not realise that the Tunnels were making a large profit as all the Councils on Merseyside had recently sent out a leaflet with the Council Tax bills which gave the impression that the tolls were only just sufficient to cover the cost of running the Tunnels.

"But the Tunnels do make a profit of about six million pounds a year."

Mr McGoldrick also condemned the repeated claims made by Merseytravel that the tunnels were never meant to be free.

He said: "The Acts, under which the Tunnels were built, limited the period for which tolls could be collected, but the local authorities just kept moving the goal posts.

"In the past we have suggested that instead of the profits going to Merseytravel, they should be used to pay for various concessions including no tolls on Sundays.

"That would help to unite families on Merseyside for 52 weeks of the year but instead what we have got from Merseytravel is a tolls increase implemented on Mother's Day. It is crass and insensitive"

During the protest a mammoth queue built up in the area lading into the Wallasey Tunnel, not because of the increase but because Merseytravel had closed one of the two tubes down, leaving only one lane in each direction.

This sparked off another complaint from the Tunnels Users.

"Merseytravel seem to have no regard for drivers, no doubt they will say that all these daytime closures - including those on weekdays - are for "essential" maintenance, but there must be no other road - tolled or untolled - which is so frequently subject to lane closures and queues.

"The management of the Tunnels should be taken away from Merseytravel and put in the hands of an organisation that does not view drivers as anything other than a cash cow."

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