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RHA sounds the alarm over M4 toll road plans
Page 6
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By David Harris and Chris Tindall.
PLANS FOR AN M4 toll relief road would cripple haulage businesses delivering into Wales and seriously damage the economy, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) warns.
The Welsh Assembly is currently considering the case for a toll motorway, similar to the M6 Toll in the Midlands, for motorists travelling between London, Cardiff and Swansea, although it says no firm decision will be made until environmental surveys have been carried out.
Critics such as the Friends of the Earth have already waded into the debate, arguing that widening the existing M4 motorway would be cheaper and more efficient.
However, the RHA's regional director, Mike Farmer, says there will always be environmental objections to plans to build new roads. It is in favour of a relief road, but opposes putting a toll on it.
"The M4 is the main artery into South Wales and it's not fit for purpose," insists Farmer. "It clags up every day. Lorries are already paying £15.90 to go over the river, and then to be hit by a toll would do the Welsh economy no good. It would also be more than a normal chap could bear."
Farmer suggests a private company builds the road and then the Government repays it back over a period of time, based on traffic counts on the new road, or "shadow tolling" as it is known.
But he says lessons must be learnt from the M6 Toll, which hauliers have snubbed due to it cutting less than 20 minutes off journey times: -£9 for 17 minutes doesn't stack up economically." he argues.
Pembrokeshire-based Frenni Transport says it would rather see the M4 widened than have another toll road: "We're being held up by a small but significant amount of time," explains director Matthew Parry. "But with a toll road you're back in the same boat; you're either paying for a toll or paying to wait a little bit longer."
Neil Crumpton, Friends of the Earth's transport campaigner, maintains: "The problem of peaktime congestion on the M4 could be solved by turning its two-lane bottlenecks into three lanes, so the motorway is three lanes for its entire length."
A Welsh Assembly spokesman says that if the Government decides to press ahead with a new road, there will he a public inquiry, and haulage operators will have an opportunity to comment.