Severn leap
Page 7
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AN INCREASE of 150 per cent Severn Bridge tolls for comm cial vehicles proposed by 1 Department of Transport I come under intense critici from the two major trade as ciations.
Transport Secretary T( King, speaking at the Prei! Transport Association's ann conference (see p57), said t the toll charges had remair static for four years and the crease from 40p to £1 v necessary to help pay for upkeep of the bridge.
Books of 50 pre-paid vouch will still be available at a 10 I cent discount, but those 51 from now on will have to be changed for new vouchers wlthe proposed new tolls are int duced.
The date of the toll increa: has not been set as the Or has to be put to the public a then laid before Parliament.
Mr King said that it was G. ernment policy to make users of estuary crossin pay for the upkeep of t bridges rather than taxpayE and ratepayers.
The Freight Transport As ciation and the Road Haul: Association, whose policies to abolish all tolls on roads z river crossings, have spoken against the proposed increasE
"The Severn Bridge con tutes a vital part of t motorway link between So Wales and the rest of Britain E Europe," the ETA said.
The RHA, mirroring the comments, said it was "sh tered" by the colossal increase