‘Scrap Mersey Tolls’, a group that is campaigning for an end to all crossing tolls on the Mersey has launched a petition calling for an end to all tolls on the Mersey – the tunnels and the bridges. The petition is addressed to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Labour Party and the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
The petition is the third in a row. The first was on the Parliament website and was prematurely ended when the Prime Minister called a snap election in May. The second was on change.org and was closed with nearly 22,000 signatures when the Gateway bridge opened at midnight on Friday 13th October. The latest is on the 38 Degrees petition website.
The petition starts “With the opening of the tolled Mersey Gateway Bridge, and the tolling of the Silver Jubilee Bridge and the Mersey Tunnels, there are now four toll ‘barriers’ along a substantial length of the Mersey which effectively divide the Region into two. These toll barriers damage both the local and wider economies and divide communities, families and friends.”
“As the City Mayor said in his election manifesto of April 2017 “We are the only City Region in Europe where in the future all cross-river traffic movements will be subject to expensive tolls…… we need to ensure that our river ceases to be a barrier to movement and commerce.””
Claire Glynn from Scrap Mersey Tolls said “we are pressing all the parties to stop the discrimination where this area is treated worse than other areas of Britain, and the discrimination where some residents are treated unfavourably compared with others. We hope that many thousands will sign the petition and show the politicians of all parties how strong the feeling is against tolls. We hope to see an end to tolls as has already happened in Scotland and will soon be the case in Wales.
John McGoldrick of the Mersey Tunnels Users Association: a group whose members have been campaigning against Tunnels tolls since 2003 said – ‘This area has suffered tolls for over eighty years with drivers paying over one billion pounds to the authorities who control the Tunnels. The authorities have now closed what was the only untolled crossing in the City Region. We hope that people will now get together and sign this petition to demonstrate that they want an end to this highway robbery. Drivers pay around fifty billion pounds a year in road taxes and it is that money which should pay for roads and river crossings not additional money that drivers are forced to pay over to toll collectors and their agents.”