Drop tolls call
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TOLLS on the Dartford Tunnel and other estuarine crossings should be abandoned at the earliest opportunity, Road Haulage Association national chairman Harold Russel said this week.
Mr Russett, who was giving his final address before retiring from the RHA chair, told members and guests at the Association's annual dinner in London: "Tolls in this day and age are a nonsense and an abomination. It is high time they were abandoned."
He was repeating a point of view aired by RHA director-general Freddie Plaskett at the RHA Tipcon conference in Harrogate (CM, May 12). He urged that the political will be found to use the E160m tax "overpayment" by lorries and the massive sums contributed by other road users, to fund the abolition of tolls.
"It is not merely that we object to paying the tolls, although this is bad enough when we are already paying over the top in taxation. More worrying are the traffic delays which the collection of tolls causes — delays which will get worse as traffic. increases.
The M25 outer London orbital motorway is intended to provide a fast route around the capital. We are already finding congestion at the Dartford Tunnel during certain periods, to enable the collection of the toll fee and we are fearful of greater congestion when the whole M25 circuit is complete."
Mr Russett called for the Government to take over the tunnel from Essex and Kent County Councils, pay off the fast-increasing capital debt and run it free of all tolls.
The same, he said, should apply to such other crossings as the Severn Bridge, Mersey Tunnel and Humber Bridge, all of which form part of the national transport infrastructure.
As Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley was booked as principal guest, Mr Russett lost no opportunity in repeating the RHA's anger over the increases in vehicle excise duty which were included in the March Budget.
"After spending time and money on a review, vehicle excise duty, far from being reduced, was increased again. But insult was added to injury: "We knew that in the eyes of the Government there was no automatic link between road track costs and ved. We knew that the Armitage Report recommended that any excess of taxation over road track costs should be taken from the heavier lorries which are supposed to cause more environmental problems.
"But we did not expect that excess to be a cool £160m — taken without apology. We can only conclude that the haulage industry is seen as a soft touch, the Milch cow for Government revenue."