us ' too l o w' E tolls in Britain are to ,
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and the Humber ige is probably unry, says the House of nm ns public accounts mi tee which reported last k.
Po nts a finger of scorn at bri ge authorities which e f iled to raise tolls to rt paid interest charges ha e, instead, resorted to the borrowing to meet >e c mmitments.
p icular, it has criticised Sc ttish Development De partment's failure to raise the tolls on the under-utilised Erskine Bridge to obtain additional revenue. The hgv toll is still 50p, but the bridge's capital debt has risen from 1971's £7m to £15m.
The Humber Bridge, for which tolls of up to £6.50 are proposed for heavy commercials, may have been built for the wrong reasons.
The committee accuses Government ministers of having decided to build it on the basis of "substantially inaccurate" forecasts of traffic flows.
Despite this, the committee feels that charges for the Severn Bridge—a public inquiry into new tolls is to be held soon—not only are too high, but are too costly to collect.
It suggests that the present manual toll booth system is archaic, and that substantial savings would be effected if electronic coin collection equipment, like that used in hundreds of multi-storey car parks throughout the country, be used instead.
The Severn Bridge Act empowers the Government to collect tolls over a 40 year period which ends in 2008, and to repay construction costs with interest.