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(this page slightly revised on 6th May to reflect the latest position)

THE ELECTIONS on 7th MAY 2015

Views of parties nationally on tolls

Conservatives: George Osborne, the Chancellor, said on the 23rd April that Tunnel tolls would be removed for Wirral residents. But this claim begs two question. Why have they done nothing over the last five years? Why is this promise restricted to Wirral residents?
After the 23rd April, the statement by George was watered down to a promise of "a full review of the tolls, including their impact on the Wirral economy". The latest is that "the tunnel tolls must be cut and even abolished."

The Conservative party 2015 manifesto has nothing about tolls.

Labour: The leaders of the Merseyside councils in February seemed to say that they would stop Merseytravel from treating Tunnels users as a cash cow, but this promise seems to have been filed away in a drawer marked as “Do not open for 100 years”. Labour have claimed that the tolls "are already being reviewed", but there is no proof of this claim and all the signs are that nothing is really happening.

The Labour party 2015 manifesto also has nothing about tolls, even though some of their candidates have made promises about a 'review' of the planned tolls on the bridges at Runcorn. Labour do however promise to "promote cycling", so perhaps they will turn one of the Tunnels over to the cyclists!

Lib Dems: They have said nothing, but their track record is that they want the Tunnels to be used as a cash cow for Merseytravel, even though they have promised that they would remove tolls from the Severn Crossing.

The Lib Dem 2015 manifesto has a promise that "to help create jobs and boost growth in Wales, we will abolish the economically distorting tolls on the Severn Bridge once the debts are paid off." As the debt is almost paid off this would mean that the tolls for entering South Wales would go within a year or so. There is nothing about any other tolls.

UKIP: On Merseyside, one of their main campaigning points is that they would remove tolls on the Mersey Tunnels.

The UKIP 2015 manifesto says: "We will remove road tolls where possible and let existing contracts on running road tolls expire. Motorists are already taxed highly enough through fuel and vehicle taxes." It is not clear what this means for tolls on the Tunnels..

Greens: They have said nothing, but their policy is to take more money from drivers.

The Green Party 2015 manifesto says that they will "Introduce road-pricing schemes such as the London congestion charge and road-user tolls for heavy lorries." In fact tolls for HGVs were introduced in April last year, though it is called a 'road user levy'. The promise of more 'congestion charge' schemes will probably only appeal to masochists.

SNP: South of the 'border' you can not vote for them, but in the SNP 2015 manifesto, they remind voters in Scotland that "the SNP Scottish Government has taken forward policies designed to support households through the recession. For example, we have frozen the Council Tax, removed prescription charges and road tolls, increased free nursery provision, provided free school meals in the early years of primary school and reintroduced free university education."


General election on Merseyside

The predictions of who will win are taken from Electoral Calculus Their home page shows the overall forecast for the new Parliament, but if you click on one of the 'England' links on the left, and then on a particular constituency, you can see the latest forecast for that seat.

According to Electoral Calculus, in nearly all the Merseyside seats the chances are almost 100% that the new MP will be Labour. In our opinion nearly all these MPs will be quite happy to see Merseytravel continue to profit from users of the Tunnels.
One exception is Birkenhead, where Frank Field (Labour) does favour some moderation in the tolls, though he seems to have had done little or nothing about this in the last ten years.

There are ONLY three seats on Merseyside where the result is not a foregone conclusion, and where tactical voting could have an effect:
  • Southport, where the Conservatives have a 40% chance of unseating John Pugh, the Lib Dem who has supported tolls and Merseytravel.

  • Wirral South, where the Conservatives have a 30% chance of unseating Alison McGovern of Labour who seems to favour Merseytravel and tolls.

  • Wirral West, where it is a 50:50 contest between Esther McVey for the Conservatives and Margaret Greenwood for Labour.
    Esther McVey has been an opponent of Merseytravel and the tolls for many years, though her Government have done nothing to stop Merseytravel taking profits from the Tunnels and approved the Labour plan to toll the bridges at Runcorn. She will be responsible for the recent statement by George Osborne that Wirral residents would not have to pay tolls. Like the grin of the Cheshire Cat this promise seemed to fade away but has reappeared in the last few days of the campaign.
    Margaret Greenwood has failed to make it clear what her views on tolls are, but we assume that like the other Labour MPs she will largely ignore the tolls issue. It is unlikely that she will be another Stephen Hesford (the former Labour MP for Wirral West) who opposed Merseytravel and supported users of the Tunnels.

  • Local Council elections on Merseyside

    We have not attempted to get the views of any of the candidates for the hundreds of Council seats where there will be a vote on the 7th May, but we assume that they would back their party's national policy on tolls. Beraimg in mind that only UKIP has a policy and theirs is not 100% clear.

    We suggest that even if you vote tactically for the General Election, in the local election you may as well vote for the candidate that you favour. You will at least be registering your support when they add up the popular vote. And who knows, you may live in one of those few wards where your vote may make a difference to the result.

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