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2015 Gateway news

Mersey Gateway News inc Runcorn bridge (SJB)

2014

  • December - MORE ON THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME - SOME DRIVERS DEFY THE TROLLS - We reported at the beginning of the month that the Government had introduced 'cashless' tolls at the Dartford Crossing. It seems that there are more brave people than we thought, as about 15,000 drivers a day are not paying - BBC 30 December - 'Dartford Crossing: 15% of drivers failed to pay'.


  • December - SPIN MACHINE FOR THE TOLL BRIDGES BUSY AT END OF THIS MONTH -
    The local papers must be sick from regurgitating as 'news' so many of the press releases from the troll factory -
    Liverpool Echo 31 December - 'Mersey Gateway Bridge work to cause delays for drivers'.
    Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 30 December - 'Crossrail boss recruited as director for £1.86bn Mersey Gateway bridge project'.Identical story in the World.
    Runcorn & Widnes World 26 December - 'Best friends land jobs with Mersey Gateway project'. Identical story in the News.
    Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 24 December - 'Mersey Gateway bridge works to intensify in Runcorn and Widnes in January'. Identical story in the World.
    Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 23 December - 'Halton residents gain construction skills through Merseylink training course' Identical story in the World.
    Runcorn & Widnes World 22 December - 'The Merseylink project treats children and pensioners to Christmas parties'. £1,000 is cheap publicity for a scheme that aims to take billions in tolls from drivers.


  • December - TROLLS CHOP MORE TREES -
    Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 11 December - 'Runcorn dad furious after trees protecting home from expressway traffic cleared for Mersey Gateway roadworks '.


  • December - 12 PENCE TOLL IS 12 PENCE TOO MUCH - There is another toll 20 miles upriver from Liverpool which also causes problems - Runcorn & Widnes World 1 December - letter '12p toll bridge makes traffic problems worse'.
    This toll is nominally a toll to cross the Mersey even though at this point you could cross the Mersey in one step. This oddity is so that Peel Holdings (who own the canal and a large part of Merseyside) can get more money, as apparently the law that gave the power to build the canal said that there could be no tolls charged on any crossing.


  • November - NO TOLLS PARTY PROTESTS AGAINST THE NEW MERSEY TOLLS - In March, UKIP had a protest against the tolls at the Mersey Tunnels and elsewhere, they have now protested against the planned tolls on the Runcorn - Widnes bridges. Runcorn & Widnes World 1 December - 'UKIP mount bridge protest branding tolls 'highway robbery''   Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 28 November - 'Ukip brands road tolls as 'highway robbery' in Runcorn-Widnes bridge protest'.


  • November - 'PROGRESS' ON THE NEW MERSEY TOLLS BARRIER -
    Liverpool Echo 29 November - 'Residents fears for homes near Mersey Gateway bridge' - it is not clear why this is news now as the Mersey trolls have been chopping trees down since last year - even before the contract was signed!!
    Runcorn & Widnes World 27 November - 'Mersey Gateway roadworks to close slip road at Ditton junction for five months'   Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 28 November - 'Ditton Roundabout to Speke Road slip road in Widnes to shut this Tuesday for five months'. This story includes a comment from one woman that her daily journey time has gone up to four hours because of various roadworks. On the 28th the Liverpool Echo had in their print edition a big story "Roads to shut as new bridge works gather pace" that did not get into their web pages. At least by not putting it on the web, Halton Council avoided any adverse comments!
    Runcorn & Widnes World 27 November - 'Talk on Mersey Gateway'   Runcorn & Widnes World 18 November - 'Halton drivers warned of road closures as work progresses on Mersey Gateway'.


  • October - GET LOST David Cameron visited the O2 call centre in Runcorn and was asked about tolls on the bridges. He said "We're always happy to consider issues but at the end of the day we do need to fund the bridge from a mixture of taxpayers' money and toll money and that's the way the investment is going ahead." Liverpool Echo 30 October - "David Cameron quizzed by Runcorn call centre workers"   Warrington Guardian 30 October - "Prime Minister talks taxes and tolls during Preston Brook visit" (video has nothing on tolls).


  • October - MUSICAL CHAIRS Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 20 October - "Move to appoint Halton Council chief executive to Mersey Gateway Crossings Board approved"   Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News 7 October - "Reshuffle at Mersey Gateway Crossings Board".


  • October - MORE TOLLS PLANNED UP RIVER? Warrington Guardian 3 October - Letter "No blame on the PM".


  • September - PLANS FOR ANOTHER CROSSING AT WARRINGTON Unlike the Tunnels or the bridges at Runcorn this will apparently be toll free - Warrington Guardian 11 Sep - "Cautious optimism for new river crossing plans"   Warrington Guardian 4 Sep - "Warrington's £126million plan to solve town's traffic nightmare".
    Though this plan is difficult to square with an earlier story which referred to a new bridge Warrington Guardian 8 Jul - "£5m town centre Mersey bridge boost".


  • August - SOME MORE ON HALTON RESIDENTS TO GO FREE - There has been no further publicity on this, showing that Merseytravel and their allies in the Government have succeeded keeping people in the dark. It remains to be seen whether the establishment is able to keep this up permanently. Meanwhile this is what was said on Radio Merseyside immediately after the official announcement (mp3 file), the clip includes George Osborne imitating Pontius Pilate


  • July - MORE ON HALTON RESIDENTS TO GO FREE - The penny has dropped that it was not a coincidence that the trolls announced that there would be no tolls for Halton residents on the same day that there was mania on Merseyside about the French 'Giants'. This would have been a distraction anyway but it seems as if Radio Merseyside made sure that the near hysteria was whipped up to benefit their Merseytravel mates and distract attention from what was happening with the tolls.

    According to John Brace's Wirral blog, the Merseytravel members who were meeting the same day (another coincidence???) had a good laugh about it - "Merseytravel discuss the Open Golf & free trips over the Silver Jubilee & Mersey Gateway bridges for Halton people".

    There is one paper that is not joining in the conspiracy to hide this - Wirral Globe 28 July - "Should Wirral people be given free use of Mersey Tunnels?".
    Comments on this story include suggestions that demonstrations will never work and what is needed is direct action. But who will volunteer to be first to lead the charge on the Merseytravel Bastille which is defended by their private police force? A force paid for out of tolls.


    HAT

  • July - HALTON RESIDENTS TO GO FREE - On Friday 25th George Osborne came to Runcorn to announce that Halton residents will not have to pay tolls to cross the existing (Silver Jubilee) and planned (Mersey Gateway) bridges between Widnes and Runcorn. The announcement came out of the blue, but has followed a campaign which only started about 2 months ago and has snowballed.

    You can see more here - NO Tolls - Runcorn page and here - Halton Against Tolls - Facebook group.

    This was the reaction from some of those campaigning against the tolls - Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News - "Tolls campaigners react to chancellor's announcement".

    The Chancellor was asked about the Mersey Tunnels and said that it was nothing to do with him.
    Both the BBC and the Liverpool Echo (who have both long been supporters for tolling the bridges at Runcorn) ignored our press release (on No Tolls Runcorn link above) and avoided any mention of the Mersey Tunnels tolls. The BBC went so far as to say that the Tunnels were a completely different situation.

    What is different is that the people of Runcorn and Widnes at last woke up and did something, and scared the politicians.
    Most people elsewhere in our region seem to be unconscious of the unfairness of the Tunnel tolls and of the traffic delays caused by the tolls and the harm that they do to the economy. We are not sure whether the apathy is due to the failure of the MTUA or the way that the news media ignore the issue 99% of the time while the authorities and the news media keep people distracted with various entertainments.


  • July - CLOSED AGAIN - The Birkenhead Tunnel was closed over four days as the French 'Giants' paraded round the streets of Liverpool
    To add to the fun for drivers the trolls also picked the same weekend to carry out work in connection with the new Runcorn toll bridge at the Weston Link roundabout and Junction 12 of the M56. The combination of this with the Birkenhead Tunnel closure will cause massive congestion and frustration for drivers - just what the authorities want - and as an added bonus very few drivers would have realised what was going on.
    Letter in Runcorn & Widnes World 23 July - "Madness to close junction 12".


  • May - START OF WORK ON BUILDING A TOLL BARRIER TO DIVIDE THE REGION -

    The news media are fond of showing pretty pictures of the new bridge at Runcorn - even though most of them were plastered over the press long before anyone knew what the bridge would really look like.
    For a change this picture of a bridge is not of the tolled one at Runcorn, it is a picture of another already under construction in Scotland - which will not be tolled.


    Liverpool Echo 7 May - 'Work starts on £1.75bn Mersey Gateway bridge'.
    Like most of what the news media print about this scheme, the cost figure is misleading.
    The actual construction cost of the bridge is probably going to be more like a third of the figure quoted. The figure that will run into the billions is the amount which drivers will have to pay at what is currently an untolled crossing.

    On top of the money to be forced from drivers, the Government have already given about 100 million pounds to this scheme and have promised about another 600 million pounds in grants and loan guarantees. All this for a scheme which, without tolls, could have been built years ago and at a cost far less than the money that the politicians have promised to their troll friends.


    Pre 2014

  • Between the Public Inquiry in the summer of 2009, and the start of the scheme five years later in the summer of 2014, though there were stories about the scheme, most of whatever was happening was behind the scenes. The reason that it took so long is that the scheme that the polticians agreed in 2009 was a non starter as no firm would take on the risks of a tolled bridge. It took five years to come up with a plan where the public sector took the risks for this private scheme.

    You can see what happened up to July 2009 here.


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