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2015 AND NO TOLL increase

The expected toll increase in the cash toll did not occur. More amazingly there is now the possibility of toll reductions. Why this sudden change of policy? In our view there are three reasons -
  • In the past Merseytravel has been able to use the Tunnels as a cash cow, while misleading the public about the profits that they make. This year for the first time there is the Combined Authority over Merseytravel.

  • Last Saturday we sent the politicians, including those on the Combined Authority a letter giving them the real facts, which will have come as news to them - assuming they all read it!

  • The members of the new authority as well as being responsible for Merseytravel are also interested in improving the economy and creating jobs, and they seem to realise that the tolls hinder their economic aims.

  • Here are some of the points that we made to the councillors -
  • Tolls are unfair, unwanted and uneconomic. They divide families and friends and have a negative effect on the economy.

  • Despite the change in the law that Merseytravel persuaded Parliament to make in 2004, the Authority has the power in subsection 1 of Section 92C to reduce or remove tolls "in such .. circumstances as it may from time to time determine". There is no legal requirement that forces you to increase the tolls.

  • Even with no tolls increase the Tunnels will make a profit in the year starting in April of 15.4 million pounds.

  • The Birkenhead Tunnel cost 7 million pounds to build and the Wallasey Tunnels cost 37 million pounds. The tolls collected in one year alone are almost the same amount as this cost of building the Tunnels. Since the Tunnels came into use in December 1933 the authorities have collected over 900 million pounds in tolls, with a large part of that going one way or another to benefit the authorities rather than being solely used to pay off debt and maintain the Tunnels.

  • Even without the latest increase, the Mersey Tunnels are the third most expensive tolled road crossing for cars in the UK.

  • Every vehicle journey through one of the Tunnels on average makes a profit for Merseytravel of about 65 pence.This 'Toll Tax' contrasts with the subsidies that Merseytravel hands out to others. The MTUA have calculated that the subsidies are: 2 pound per passenger journey for supported bus services, 2.50 per passenger journey for local rail services and 5 pounds per passenger journey for the Ferries.

  • The MTUA believes that no one should pay tolls, but the situation with the Tunnels and local people is completely different from the treatment of people who live near the tolled Dartford Crossing, they can cross for 20 pence a time or have as many journeys as they wish for 20 pounds a year. It is also different from the plan at Runcorn, where local people will cross for free, but everyone else will have to pay about 2 pounds to use the new, or the old, bridges.

  • This is the full letter that we sent to the councillors about the planned tolls rise.
    And this is - what we sent to the councillors on Monday 16th after the decision to review the tolls setting and the profit taking.


    Below, collected together from our News page, are some of the stories related to the toll increase that was in effect cancelled.


  • March 16 - OFFICIAL VERSION OF COMBINED AUTHORITY MEETING ON 13th FEBRUARY
    This was our version of part of what was said at the meeting

    This is what the official version says about the discussion and decision on tolls -

    The Authority considered a report of the Treasurer regarding the schedule of Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16 which the Merseytravel Committee had considered at its meeting on 12 February 2015.

    It was reported that the calculation of the Mersey Tunnel tolls were determined by the County of Merseyside Act 1980, as amended by the Mersey Tunnels Act 2004, with reference to a formula that linked them to movements in the retail price index. This sought to ensure that the value of tolls maintained the same relative value over time as other forms of river crossing using public transport.

    In this respect, a recommendation from the Merseytravel Committee was tabled which advised that the level of “Authorised” tolls were set automatically by the rate of inflation each year, using November 1999 as the base year, and “Actual” tolls were then determined by considering matters of a n economic or social nature. Given the fact that, although there had been some growth, this was not uniform or strong across the City Region, and taking into account the effect of the tolls on the local economy, the Merseytravel Committee had recommended a freeze of both the Cash Toll and the Fast Tag Toll for 2015/16 at the 2014/15 levels.

    Mayor J Anderson OBE, seconded by Councillor P Davies, then moved the following motion:-
    “The Combined Authority (CA) calls on:

  • The Chair of the CA to set up a task group to consider options open to the CA to reduce costs of tunnel tolls and its impact on infrastructure and transportation;

  • The Head of Paid Service of the CA to produce a report for discussion to inform the setting of tunnel tolls for 2016/17;

  • The CA to press for a review of the Mersey Tunnel Act in any on-going devolution negotiations.”
  • In moving the motion, the Mayor highlighted the discrepancy in investment in respect of the South of England compared to the North. In particular, he referenced the fact that the tolls were being used to invest in infrastructure rather than driving down the cost of the tolls and eradicating the debt. He considered that the Combined Authority should be able to renegotiate the Tunnel Act and requested that a Task Group, to include the Chairman of the Combined Authority and representatives of both the Merseytravel Committee and the Combined Authority, be set up to look at this issue.

    In seconding the motion, the Chairman welcomed the proposal to freeze the tolls and agreed that it was timely to review the whole arrangements in this respect, particularly in light of the current devolution agenda.

    RESOLVED –That:-

    (i) the recommendation of the Merseytravel Committee that the level of Mersey Tunnel Tolls for 2015/16 be the same as the existing tolls charged for 2014/15, as set out below, be agreed:-

    Vehicle
    Class
    Authorised
    Toll
    2015/16
    Cash Toll
    2015/16
    Tag Toll
    1 £1.90 £1.70 £1.40
    2 £3.70 £3.40 £2.80
    3 £5.60 £5.10 £4.20
    4 £7.40 £6.80 £5.60

    (ii) a task group be set up to consider options open to the Combined Authority to reduce the costs of tunnel tolls and its impact on infrastructure and transportation.

    (iii) the Head of Paid Service of the Combined Authority produce a report for discussion to inform the setting of tunnel tolls for 2016/17; and

    (iv) the Combined Authority press for a review of the Mersey Tunnel Act in any on-going devolution negotiations.

    (NB In accordance with the Authority’s Constitution, Mr R Hough took no part in the above vote. In addition, Councillor R Polhill requested that it be recorded that he abstained from the vote as the Borough of Halton does not form part of the legislative arrangements in respect of the Mersey Tunnels Act.)

    Full minutes on Knowsley site - LCRCA minutes for 13 Feb 2015.


  • February 26 - TRANSCRIPT OF PART OF FRIDAY 13TH MEETING OF THE COMBINED AUTHORITY
    On the day of the meeting we have a report which started “as is usual at meetings in the new luxury HQ, it was very difficult for the public and press to hear what the members were saying. The only person who can be clearly heard is the chairman; at the start of the meeting he asked members to speak close to the microphones, but he was ignored. Anyway this is the gist of what we were able to see and hear."

    What follows is a more detailed account having listened carefully to the videos made by Wirral blogger John Brace Liverpool City Region Combined Authority agree to no rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls for 2015/16 and You Tube - The official video of Knowsley Council

    At about 1 hour 2 minutes into the meeting, the Authority chairman invites the Merseytravel Committee chairman to speak
    The Merseytravel chairman says that despite what the report before the Authority said, the Merseytravel Committee that had met the day before was recommending a freeze on all tolls. He continued: “The rationale is quite straightforward. Under the Mersey Tunnels Act 2004 we have discretion to take on board economic and social factors, and we acknowledge that whilst, there is some growth in the local economy; welcome that is, we are mindful of the fact that is not uniform and strong across the city region.

    So because of that we acknowledge that Tunnels tolls are part of transport costs which do have an effect on the local economy, and we are proposing that freeze. As part of that we acknowledge and we hope that transport operators will reflect on this, particularly large companies, Arriva and Stagecoach act accordingly. We call on them to at least freeze their fares that they charge, or much better bring back some more cost effective, and value for money options.

    But specifically with regard to the tunnel tolls 2015/16 the Merseytravel Committee is recommending to the Combined Authority a freeze on all tolls for the next financial year.”
    The Authority chairman then invites Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor to speak to a motion.

    Joe Anderson reads out his motion, which was slightly different from the printed version -
  • The Chair of the Combined Authority set up a task group to consider the options open to the Combined Authority to reduce costs of tunnel tolls, and its impact on infrastructure and transportation,

  • The Head of Paid Service of the Combined Authority to produce a report for discussion to inform the setting of tunnel tolls for 2016/2017, and beyond,

  • The Combined Authority to press for a review of the Mersey Tunnel Act in any on-going devolution implication negotiations.
  • He continued:
    ”I think, Chair just asking the members to support this, I think it is absolutely right that we look at the Tunnels and we argue as we have done, you I and each and every local authority member here for the discrepancy between investment in transport infrastructure in the South of this country compared to the North. And for me I think it's something that we have to actually force home, how we believe that the tolls that we have been paying, people have been paying Tunnel tolls for decades now and we still have not been able to eradicate the debt.

    There are two issues.

    One for me is that we need to address, as a Combined Authority, how we take money from the tolls and invest that in infrastructure. I think that's fundamentally wrong.
    I think that all the profits that are made from the Tunnels should go into driving down the Tunnel tolls costs. So I am asking for a review of that by this Combined Authority.

    And also plus to take into the heart of the negotiations with Government on further devolution, how we can remove the Tunnel Act itself, or renegotiate the Tunnel Act.
    We all accept that there has to be investment in terms of being able to maintaining and keeping operating, and also the staffing costs. So a renegotiation of the Act, or an ability for us to change the Act, is what we should be aiming for. So that is all it's calling for. A task group to be set up, including the chair of Merseytravel itself and the Chief Executive of Merseytravel and the Combined Authority members to look at ways forward...”

    One other item that was not previously clear is what the Authority were doing about the £1.1 million that they won't get as they cancelled Merseytravel's planned tolls increase. At about 1 hour 14 minutes into the meeting, The Treasurer to Merseytravel and the Combined Authority mentions this and says "An adjustment to the Budget .. will see a reducion in Tunnels income of £1.1 million, with a corresponding adjustment to the amounts transferred to our reserves for capital financing investment. It does not have any effcet on the levy”.
    It is not clear which reserves they mean.


  • February 19 - LETTER IN THE ECHO
    A letter from MTUA was published by the Liverpool Echo on Wednesday 18th:
    "Following Merseytravel's recommendation that all Tunnel tolls be frozen for this year, the Echo commented "Well done to the Merseytravel committee, for listening and acting accordingly regarding tunnel tolls.
    "This praise is not deserved. It is clear that Merseytravel wanted to put the tolls up. They only did a U-turn when they heard that Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor, and the other Council leaders would overrule them."

    With the Combined Authority now in charge there now seems to be some 'light at the end of the tunnel' and there is the prospect of lower rather than higher tolls. But I fear that we may never see an improvement as Merseytravel has become dependent upon the profits that they make from users of the Tunnels."

    "Even though there will be no toll increase in this election year, Merseytravel will make 15 million pounds profit from the Tunnels. How are the Combined Authority going to wean them off that?"

  • February 16 - TALKING TO ROGER - Today one of the MTUA committee rang in to the Roger Phillips Show (The full programme is available here on the BBC iplayer till about 14 Mar 2015) to talk about what happened last week.
    This is a sound clip of what was said - 7 mins.


  • February 13 - DÉJÀ VU
    2004 Nov 22 - "Pressure grows for tunnel tolls cut ".


  • February 13 - MORE ON 'THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL'
    BBC Feb 13 - "Mersey tunnels toll pricing task force to be set up".
    Merseytravel told the BBC that "The tunnels were built as a joint venture by local authorities and as such their upkeep and maintenance remains outside of the national highway network." The local authorities built a lot of things, but that does not stop the Government giving them money. The fact is that whether you get help depends on how hard the politicians push the Government. In the case of Merseytravel all they have pushed the Government for in the last 20 years is for an easy way of putting up the tolls and to then let them spend it as they like.

    They also told the BBC - "However, there is the benefit that the money raised locally through the tolls is spent locally, unlike road tax and general taxation which goes into a central pot." This is just crazy, we want money from the central pot that all drivers have contributed to. It is not a 'benefit' that Merseytravel does what they like with toll users money.

    There was another example of Merseytravel's' philosophy today. They sent out a message to all their 'Fast' Tag customers extolling the benefits of being tagged and saying "the more you travel, the more you save". Drivers who follow this advice will soon find, that all the money in their account ends up in Merseytravel's.


  • February 13 - WATCH MERSEYTRAVEL DISCUSSING THE TOLLS ON THURSDAY
    Below is a short video of the tolls part of Thursday's meeting that was made by Wirral blogger John Brace.
    You Tube - "Merseytravel Committee 12th February 2015".


  • February 13 MTUA REACTION TO TODAY'S DEVELOPMENTS
    Today's statements that imply that tolls will in future be gong down rather than up came out of the blue. There is the possibility that these are insincere statements made with both eyes on the elections in May. But until it is proved wrong, we will take them at their word.

    After the meeting we gave various verbal statements, but this is what was in our written release after the meeting -
    "Users of the Tunnels will be pleased that it has been confirmed that we don't face a toll increase for what would have been the third year in a row. But our aim since the MTUA was formed in 2003 is that there should be no tolls at all.

    We were very pleasantly surprised at today's decision to look again at thr whole question of Tunnels financing and the level of tolls.

    We will continue to campaign for the tolls to be scrapped with the Tunnels being financed from the 50 billion pounds a year that the Government takes from roads users. This may take a long time to achieve and in the meantime we will press the Combined Authority to review the situation where, even though this latest increase has been abandoned, Merseytravel will still take over 15 million pounds in profits from users of the Tunnels. We think that this toll tax is unfair, divides families and harms the economy of the city region. We will be asking the Authority to either bring in a substantial tolls reduction or to look at some of the MTUA proposals that Merseytravel have rejected in the past, such as no tolls at weekends.

    As well as the continuing Tunnels tolls we are also unhappy about Halton's plan to privatise the Runcorn crossing and toll the old and new bridges from 2017. The Mersey tolls barrier will then extend all the way to Warrington. Last April, Halton joined forces with Merseytravel, so we are considering launching a petition calling for both tolls to be scrapped."


  • February 13 - MORE ON TODAY'S MEETING OF THE COMBINED AUTHORITY
    The meeting started at 11 a.m. and as is usual at meetings in the new luxury HQ, it was very difficult for the public and press to hear what the members were saying. The only person who can be clearly heard is the chairman; at the start of the meeting he asked members to speak close to the microphones, but he was ignored. Anyway this is the gist of what we were able to see and hear.

    The meeting started with an hour of verbal reports on 'Transport for the North', 'City Region Growth Plan' and 'City Region Innovation Plan'. The impression given to an outsider is that they may be generating paper rather than creating jobs that would not have sprung up anyway. Though one thing that they seem to be good at is lobbying for money. There was mention of 700 million pounds that the Government had agreed to give to the region for 'road investment' and which was in the 'Growth plan'. We were puzzled as to where all this money was being spent.

    When they got onto the tolls increase, as with yesterday’s Merseytravel meeting they ignored the report - which assumed that the tolls were going up.

    The chairman of Merseytravel addressed the Combined Authority members and said that despite what the report said, the Merseytravel Committee that had met the day before was recommending a freeze on all tolls.
    He said that the 'rationale' for this was that though there had been some economic growth it was 'not uniform or strong'. Believe it or not, he then said that tolls had an effect on the economy and they were therefore suggesting that there be a tolls freeze.

    The Liverpool Mayor, Joe Anderson, then said that he was moving a motion. He said that he wanted to reduce the impact of tolls and wanted changes by 2016/17 including a review of the 2004 Tunnels Act. He said that people has been paying tolls for 'decades' because the Councils were not able to 'eradicate' the debt. He wanted to see an end to using Tunnels profits on anything other than the Tunnels.

    The motion was seconded by Phil Davies, the Wirral Council Leader, and Peter Dowd, the Sefton Council Leaser said that he thought it was 'eminently sensible'. Phil Davies then said that the tolls seemed 'to go up inexorably year after year;. He said that the timing of this was excellent with the 'devolution agenda' (whatever that is). He ended that he hoped 'we can make road progress on this' and 'make a decision to lift this huge burden'.

    The motion was passed unanimously except that the Leader of Halton Council abstained, and the Leader of St Helens Council was not at the meeting.

    The full wording of the motion was - The Combined Authority calls on:

  • The Chair of the Combined Authority to set up a task group to consider options open to the Combined Authority to reduce costs of tunnel tolls and its impact on infrastructure and transportation,

  • The Head of Paid Service of the Combined Authority to produce a report for discussion to inform setting of tunnel tolls for 2016/17,

  • The Combined Authority to press for a review of the Mersey Tunnel Act in any on-going devolution negotiations.
  • The item following the tolls increase was the Authority's budget for the year starting in April. As the budget had assumed that there would be a tolls increase, there was now a hole in the budget. All that happened was that an officer pointed out that the budget would need to be changed. No one said how else they would get the income or where the expenditure would be cut. They then passed the budget even though it apparently does not add up!


  • February 13 - BIGGER SURPRISE
    At its meeting this morning, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority confirmed that the toll increase would not take place. That was not a surprise, what is a real surprise is that a resolution was passed which leads to the possibility of lower Tunnels Tolls and an end to the 2004 Tunnels Act shenanigans - Liverpool Echo 13 Feb - "Mersey Tunnels tolls: Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson calls for reduced prices"   Wirral Globe 13 Feb - "Mersey Tunnel tolls frozen for this year".


  • February 12 - SURPRISE
    At its meeting this afternoon, Merseytravel changed their mind and recommended that there be no tolls increase this year - Liverpool Echo 12 Feb 18.45 - "Merseyside travel bosses back tunnel toll freeze "   Liverpool Echo 12 Feb 16.08 - "Mersey Tunnel tolls frozen as bosses reject price rise"   Wirral Globe 12 Feb - "Merseytravel recommends tunnel toll freeze in shock u-turn"   Liverpool Echo 12 Feb - "Reread: Mersey Tunnel tolls frozen for next year - updates from the meeting".
    This was in the Wirral Globe before the Merseytravel u-turn - 12 Feb - "Merseytravel to recommend increase in tunnel tolls today".

    Here is our account of the meeting-

    It started at 2.30pm in the Council chamber in Merseytravel's new HQ.
    Unfortunately as usual the press and the one or two members of the public who did turn up could hardly hear anything that was said. There was not a full turnout from the councillors as three of them were absent from one of their most important meetings.
    Usually at these meeetings the tolls report - the only one that the press and public is interested in - is taken first. But this time they decided to leave it where it was on the agenda - next to last, so we all had had to sit through 75 minutes of boring reports.

    One of these reports was the Merseytravel budget for 2015/16. The report assumed that there will be a tolls rise, though an officer came out with the amazing statement that the amount of the tolls had no effect on what Merseytravel spent. As the only other item of income that the Authority has is the Combined Authority Levy, and that also seems to have been provisionally agreed, this is remarkable budgeting.
    One of the councillors from St Helens said she thought that the budget report had never been presented so clearly. We thought that it looked the same as in previous years, but with the confusion that it still shows the Levy, even though this is a matter for the Combined Authority that was created last April.

    Though what happened with the budget, was not as remarkable as what happened with the tolls increase report. This usually takes at least 30 minutes to deal with, but this year was done and dusted in less than two minutes.
    Normally an officer goes through the tolls increase report, but this year the officer said that he would not bother as 'the report speaks for itself' - on this basis they need not have bothered with the 75 minutes that were wasted on the earlier reports.
    The reality was not that 'the report speaks for itself', the reality was that the report was to be ignored and had in effect been shredded on orders from above.

    The Merseytravel chairman then said that 'economic growth was patchy' and moved that the tolls be frozen. This was agreed without a formal vote, though as we think that the rules say that individual votes have to be recorded for budget items, we must assume that members by default are recorded as agreeing to whatever is put in front of them unless they dissent.

    The chairman and a Labour councillor from the Wirral said that they hoped that the bus companies would also freeze their fares. We would hope so too, but if the bus companies (particularly those that run buses through the Tunnels) can see how much profit Merseytravel are making then they may find the request from Merseytravel to be hypocritical. The lone Tory councillor from the Wirral also welcomed the proposal; the rest of the councillors must have thought that it was best to say nothing as they quickly moved on from their failed attempt to get more Tunnels loot.

    At the end the same Wirral Councillor who mentioned the buses seemed to move that Merseytravel seek to have the law amended so that they did not have to go though this rigmarole each year. The chairman seemed to think that was a good idea, but we doubt that the Minutes will record that as a formal decision, because once the May elections are out of the way, Merseytravel will be back next February for their pound of flesh. The only hope is that the new Combined Authority will look at things with a fresh eye and take a fairer view.

    Following the meeting the Echo praised Merseytravel - 12 Feb 17.05 - "ECHO Comment: Freezing the Mersey Tunnel tolls is the right decision".
    Saying 'well done' to Merseytravel is like praising the burglar, who has stolen the tea pot, for leaving the tea bags.


  • February 12 - LATE LETTER
    The Echo today published a letter that we sent them on the 9th, when the Liverpool Mayor was in favout of a tolls rise, but published after it was known the he ahd changed his mind. For what its worth, here is the letter as published -
    Tunnel is a cash cow
    "The Echo reported that the Liverpool Mayor, Joe Anderson, told them that he 'always said the tunnels should not be used as a cash cow to take money off people'. You also report that he will be voting for a tolls rise.
    The fact is that the budget, for the year from April, shows that Merseytravel will be making nearly £17 million profit from the tolls paid by users of the Tunnels. How much do Merseytravel have to plunder from the tolls before the Mayor will agree that users are a 'cash cow' for Merseytravel?
    The Echo has also reported that Merseytravel claim that any tolls profit is 'ringfenced for investment in key transport infrastructure projects for use across the Liverpool City Region'.
    The profits are not 'ringfenced', they go into the general fund and thus help to finance all of Merseytravel's spending including things like their new HQ, the Beatles Story, the U boat, and the Mersey Tram scheme that they wasted £70 million pounds on."

  • February 11 - IT'S A MAD BAD WORLD GETS A BIT CRAZIER
    On the 8th Feb the Echo reported that Joe Anderson, the Liverpool Mayor, was going to vote on Friday 13th in favour of a tolls increase, they now report he "has stepped in to stop a rise in Mersey Tunnel tolls" - Liverpool Echo 11 Feb - "Mersey tunnel tolls: Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson demands price freeze".
    The MTUA is very surprised by this. It was quite clear that the decision to increase the cash tolls had in effect been made and had been built into the budgets for Merseytravel and the Combined Authority.
    The announcement by the Mayor is even more surprising as it is only a few days since he told the Echo that he would support the 10p increase "proposed by tunnel bosses".
    We commented at the time, that the Mayor seemed to have fallen for the usual PR blitz that tries to mask the vast profit that Merseytravel take from the Tunnels - it will be £15.4 million profit even if the tolls do not go up. We can only assume that the Mayor now realises the real facts and that knowledge has changed his views on whether there should be a tolls increase.
    It will be interesting to see what Merseytravel do at their meeting on Thursday afternoon. Will they now decide that they can do without the extra profit, or will they push ahead?
    If they do push ahead on Thursday then the final decision will be down to the Combined Authority who meet on Friday morning. At that meeting, each authority has only one vote, so even if the Leader of Wirral Council (who also happens to be the Leader of the Combined Authority) votes with the Mayor, the pair of them can be outvoted by the Leaders of the other Councils on the Authority".


  • February 11 - FANTASY PENINSULA
    11 Feb - "Wirral Labour joins growing chorus of disapproval over proposed Mersey Tunnels toll increase".
    Some of the MPS who are quoted as being against tolls increases, we know support the tolls. And Angela Eagle was one of the main cheer leaders for Merseytravel when Labour and Lib Dem MPs voted in 2004 to change the law so that Merseytravel could more easily take money from users of the Tunnels.
    The Tories at Westminster did strongly oppose the 2004 plan, but since coming to power in 2010 they have done nothing to curb Merseytravel, and it was the Tories who approved the Labour plan to toll the currently free crossing at Runcorn.
    We hope that voters will not be fooled by any of these politicians when it comes to the polls in May.


  • February 10 - PLEA FROM THE DOCK
    The Echo asks the public to let Merseytravel off due to extenuating cirumstances - 10 Feb - "Mersey tunnel tolls - what's the case for the defence?".
    With lines like "most people think they should be paying more... I’ll never complain about the tolls again", it's difficult to tell the difference between this article and a Merseytravel advertisement.


  • February 9 - BIT MORE IN THE ECHO
    It does not add much to what has already been reported, and understates the amount of profits that Merseytravel make Liverpool Echo 9 Feb - "Decision on Mersey tunnels toll rise will be made later this week".


  • February 8 - WHY YOU HAVE TO PAY
    Liverpool Echo 8 Feb - "Why do we still have to pay to use the Mersey tunnels - and five other questions about crossing the water" lot of comments. Part of this article is facts from our website, but part seems to have come from Merseytravel and is the usual misinformation.


  • February 8 - IT'S A MAD BAD WORLD
    Liverpool Echo 8 Feb - "Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson says Mersey tunnels should not be 'cash cow'" lot of comments.
    Merseytravel and the politicians obviously believe that they have got away with ripping off Tunnels users for so long that they can say anything that they like and the news media will repeat it to keep the real facts in the dark.
    If the Liverpool Mayor does not realise that the Tunnels are already a cash cow, then perhaps he thinks that the MTUA was wrong when we told the Merseytravel councillors & Council Leaders that since 2004 Merseytravel had taken nearly £100 million from the tolls. Or does he think that is small change?
    And if Merseytravel believe that the tolls plunder is 'ringfenced for investment in key transport infrastructure projects', then perhaps they need to open their eyes when they next look at their budgets and accounts; they will see that the tolls profits go to their General fund and are not ringfenced.


  • February 5 - BACK TO THE FUTURE
    The Combined Authority published on the 5/6th their agenda for their meeting on Friday 13th. It includes this - Report on the Tolls. It seems that they already know that the tolls increase is to be approved on the 12th. You would think that this would be against the rules, but that is not a problem if you have a converted DeLorean to hand.


  • February 4 - ANOTHER TOLL RISE PLANNED WHILE MERSEYTRAVEL TRIES TO SPLIT TUNNEL USERS
    Merseytravel are after another pound of flesh - Liverpool Echo 4 Feb - "Merseytravel plans Mersey Tunnels tolls rise by 10p to £1.80" lot of comments   Wirral Globe 5 Feb - "'Absolutely outrageous' - Merseytravel set to hike up tunnel tolls again"   Liverpool Echo 4 Feb - "Fury at plan for Mersey Tunnel tolls to rise by 10p to £1.80"   Liverpool Echo 4 Feb - "Proposed Mersey tunnel toll rise blasted as tax on Wirral" over 100 comments.
    One of the local MPS who oppose the increase is Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey, perhaps she has forgotten that she was a strong supporter of the change in the law that allows Merseytravel to treat the Tunnels as an ATM.
    Merseytravel report - "MERSEY TUNNEL TOLLS 2015/16".
    In their report, Merseytravel say that they are "offer(ing) regular and local users protection from the impact" of the tolls rise. The truth is that 'local' users get no special treatment. The long term aim of the trolls at Merseytravel is to have all drivers voluntarily tagged. Their short term aim is to divide the opposition to their piracy.
    In theory this increase could be voted down at either the Merseytravel meeting on Thursday 12th or the City Region meeting on Friday 13th. But with democracy what it is, these meetings are just a piece of theatre. The puppetmasters have already decided on this increase and will have built it into their budgets for the year starting in April.


  • January - MERSEYTRAVEL REPLY TO A TUNNELS USER -
    The Wirral Globe on 17 December had a letter about the possible increase in tolls. Merseytravel have replied - Wirral Globe 7 January - 'No decision on Mersey tunnel tolls increase yet'.
    As the meeting to decide on whether to increase tolls won't be till February, of course there has been no official decision yet. But it is obvious that they want to increase the tolls in April, the only doubt is whether they will put off the rise for 12 months in case increased tolls have an effect on the May elections.
    Merseytravel suggest that people go to their website for information about the Tunnels. If they do so then they may well not realise that much of the 'information' is misleading. We complained about this in a letter to Merseytravel councillors after they last decided to increase the tolls(pdf file).
    PS Our reply letter - Wirral Globe 14 January - 'Unfair toll hikes'.


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