Abolishing Forth and Tay bridge tolls will mean one-off costs of £21m, say ministers

Published on Wednesday 5 September 2007 00:06

SCRAPPING tolls on the Forth and Tay road bridges will incur one-off costs of up to £21 million, ministers said yesterday as they published measures paving the way for the move on 1 January next year.

The cost of paying off toll collectors and debt, and realigning roads does not include the 16 million a year in lost toll revenue.

Stewart Stevenson, the transport minister, introduced a parliamentary bill for abolishing the tolls. He said the measure would remove the last bridge tolls in Scotland, "ending years of injustice for the communities of Fife, Tayside and the Lothians". The Scottish government said regular bridge users could save around 200 a year, while businesses and tourism would also benefit.

But the move is likely to face tough scrutiny from Holyrood's Green-led transport, infrastructure and climate change committee, which will lead consideration of the bill. Patrick Harvie, its convener, warned ministers yesterday that it would increase congestion and pollution and raise Scotland's levels of "climate-wrecking exhaust fumes".

He said: "The Green Party has consistently argued that abolishing all charges is not in the long- term interests of commuters, and that it flies in the face of the government's climate-change policy."

A Holyrood-commissioned study concluded that the move could significantly increase traffic on the bridges, as The Scotsman revealed in June.

The toll-abolition costs include paying off the 14.8 million debt on the Tay Road Bridge, and transitional costs such as removing toll equipment, staff redundancies and changes to road layouts around the toll plazas on both bridges.

These amount to 825,000 for the Tay Road Bridge and up to 5.5 million for the Forth Road Bridge.