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Money from lorries; tolls

13th December 1968
Page 26
Page 26, 13th December 1968 — Money from lorries; tolls
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Why was the revenue from commercial vehicles not included in a report from the Committee of Public Accounts—the Commons group which sees whether the Government has wasted money?

This question was raised in the Commons by Mr. Tom Dalyell (Labour, West Lothian), when Committee reports were being debated. The information had been given to the Committee, said Mr. Dalyell, but it had not been printed.

Mr. Dalyell was one of the Scottish MPs who called for an end to the tolls on the Forth Road Bridge, "perhaps he most lopsided bargain since Esau sold his birthright for a mess of potage".

The 'collection of tolls was not a sane method of raising revenue in a modern state, unless one had unskilled manpower or enormous stretches of turnpikes without turnoffs.

Mr. William Hamilton (Labour, West. Fife), said that if vast capital debts could be written off for the nationalized industries, how much more relevant it was to think of writing off the £16 million capital debt on the Forth Bridge.

Mr. John Diamond, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, replied that the bridge was built on the basis that the users would pay for it. They were prepared to pay for it, and as long as that was the case' he could not recommend that revenue of this kind should be foregone.


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