HIGH BRIDGE TOLLS THAT IMPEDE PROGRESS.
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The Charges for Crossing the Menai Suspension Bridge, and What They Mean to Road Users.
BEAUMARIS CORPORATION has adopted a resolution calling attentien to " the ridiculously high tolls on Meuai Suspension Bridge and appeals for a bfg reduction or abolition of the said To free the bridge from the tolls, it declares, would be a great boon to the inhabitants on both sides of the straits, but especially to those of Anglesey. To the summer tourist the removal of this obstacle to wheeled traffic would he a signal benefit as giving an impetus to trade. The tolls as they exist are in the nature of a prohibition to normal communication between the island and the mainland and are a direct tax upon all-goods and persons entering. or leating the island by road.
Circumstances have altered much during the past few years and any' persox having a motor vehicle, whether private, hackney or conamercial, is Pay B40: ing a Government tax on such vehicles which should entitle him to a free main road, instead of which the existing tolls on Menai Bridge are considered very high in relation to the service rendered.
The toll charges are :—(1)
banes or bus, 3s. (id. every time it crosses. Some of the passengers (those in excess of the regulation weight for such vehicles have to walk across and pay an additional id. each). (2) Private four-seaters, 1s. 9d. per diem. (3) Hackney carriage, is. 9d. every time it crosses. Even an invalid chair for a disabled ex-Service man has to pay (id.
The matter has been made the subject of a report to the Menai Bridge Council.
Inter alia, it is stated that recently the council asked the Bangor Blue Motors, Ltd., to make the Menai Bridge the terminus for their buses instead of the Carnarvoushire end of the suspen
sion bridge. If they were to accegle to the council's request it would cost them
in-bridge tolls the sum of a year, an impossible business proposition. If a hackney carriage be hired twice daily for journeys to the railway station, and if the driver brought back a new fare each time, it would involve the proprietor in a payment of £.109 a year. As a bridge toll is passed on to the passenger, a car is only hired infrequently.
A petition, objecting to the establishment of a permanent public motorbus service in the Island of Anglesey by companies outside the county, has been signed by proprietors of motorcars and omnibuses and presented to the Menai Bridge Council. The general purposes committee of the council reported that the reference was presumably to the motor services instituted by the Bangor Blue Motors, Ltd.
This committee, iv. its report, states that the petitioners submitted that the company in question make no contribution towards .the heavy burden of raUs and taxes in the island. On this point the petitioners are, it is stated, misinformed. The company have a garage within the urban district of Menai Bridge, and, therefore, are on the same footing as the petitioners.
The petitioners state that all the money, received by the company in Anglesey is spent elsewhere. The bus loads of people brought into Anglesey from another county must, states the report, benefit somebody besides the company. Intercourse between two counties by means of road transport must be to the mutual benefit of both. Even the heavy tolls paid for passing and repassing the suspension bridge are received by Anglesey residents, who are lessees of the bridge.
As to the contention of the petitioners that there are at present sufficient motor lad train facilities in Anglesey to meet the requirements of the public, the committee observes that this is a matter for the public to decide. In the opinion of the committee, even with the advent of the services instituted by the Bangor Blue Motors, Ltd., Anglesey still lags behind other counties in the matter of road traesport.
. There are large portions of the county with no permanent services at all—i.e., motorbuses running daily or on specified days at stipulated times according to time-tables and for the benefit of the general public. When companies or individuals apply for licences and are prepared to serve the public in this manner, local authorities have no right to withhold their sanction, and it is recommended that the council accepts this
view. The committee was not aware that the petitioners were giving, or have attempted to give, the regular, permanent services so badly needed in various parts of the county. If they would only persuade themselves to provide these services there would be no need for assistance from outside.