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(this page created 3 February, last updated 30 March, 2011)

2011 TOLL increase

On Thursday 3 February 2011, Merseytravel met to discuss increasing tolls. They agreed (by a casting vote) to increase tolls.
We will be considering what action to take. If drivers meekly accept a toll increase this time, the probability is that Merseytravel will be back for more. Projecting current rates of inflation in a years time the "authorised" toll for cars at April 2011 would be about 171 pence, rounded down to 170 pence.

The rest of this page gives more details.
Background
The report considered by Merseytravel members on 3rd Feb (pdf)
Message to Merseytravel councillors before the meeting (pdf file on separate page).
What happened at the meeting
Press reports.
OUR PROTEST (on a separate page).

Background

Under the law that Merseytavel got through Parliament in 2004, each year at this time they decide whether to approve an increase in tolls. The "authorised" toll level is based on the tolls in November 1998 (when there had just been an increase) adjusted for inflation using the RPI (with the calculated toll then rounded to the nearest ten pence), and with the rider that they have to consider the local economic and social conditions. They don't have to increase the tolls and have the power to reduce or remove any of the tolls at any or all times. Though they usually claim that they have little choice - because of the law that they fought for!

In practice what happens each year is that Merseytravel formally approve a toll (which depending on the RPI movement may be the same as the one formally approved the year before) and then, in their words, decide what if any "discount" there will be. So the "authorised" tolls might be increased by say 10 pence, but the actual tolls might not increase at all.

According to the 2004 Act formula the authorised toll for cars at April 2011 would be 163.3 pence rounded to 160 pence. The current toll is of course 140 pence. The recommendation before the Merseytravel councillors was to incraese the toll by ten pence, but they could increase it by twenty pence or have no increase at all.
(Note that there are four "classes" of vehicles that pay up to four times as much at the car toll. There is a small price rebate for vehicles that are tagged. There was a mistake in the report going to the councillors which meant that ir was not clear if the price rebate for tags was going up or down.)

The report to the Councillors implied that tolls had little or no impact on business and that tolls are actually good for Wirral jobs! This is nonsense, but most of the local councillors seem to accept what is in a report from consultants and forget their own experience which should tell them that tolls are a physical and psychological barrier which can only harm an economy because they inhibit free movement and trade.

The report also claimed that if tolls were not increased then congestion would increase. In our view most of the congestion is caused by toll collection, and removing tolls would reduce congestion.
Bizarrely, the number of cars queuing to pay the tolls to cross the Mersey at Liverpool and Birkenhead is likely to go up, rather than down, when the new bridge is built at Runcorn. The reason for this is that it is officially forecast that because of the tolls on the currently free Runcorn bridge, the total traffic at Runcorn will actually go down, and that some of the traffic which currently takes that route to avoid the tunnels tolls will start using the tunnels.

The Merseytravel tolls report did not say how much money they expected to make (though it does say that they "receive a valuable surplus from the tolls which is then invested into public transport alternatives across Merseyside"). But we have seen a copy of the proposed Tunnels budget for the financial year starting in April. As usual it seems to show that even with a tolls increase, the Tunnels will only just break even. But this impression is because the profits are shown under "Capital Financing".
The amount of the expected toll profits for the coming year is nearly £6 million, before any toll increase.

We are of course in difficult financial times. People will have different views as to who is to blame for this. But one thing we might all agree on, is that the groups that over the last decade have got money for nothing do not include tunnels users. But it seems that tunnels users are the ones that are expected to further prop up the spending of Merseytravel.

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What happened at the Merseytravel meeting

When reading the account below, you should bear in mind that to some extent it is a bit of theatre. The Merseytravel budget for the year starting April was on the same agenda, and it had assumed that there would be a tolls increase. Though we and the public were in the dark, the 18 councillors on Merseytravel will have already made up their minds, and it is likely that they had already calculated that, unless someone was off sick, then the voting would be nine to nine and that the toll increase would go through on the chairman's casting vote.

  • The meeting took place at 2.30 pm at the Merseytravel Offices in Hatton Garden. The meeting started with a complaint that the report on the Tunnels had been delivered by taxi. There was also a suggestion that the Chair and Deputy Chair should be barred from discussing or voting on the tolls, as they had apparently agreed the report before the meeting, but the chair and deputy chair said that they had not seen it as they were in London.

  • The Merseytravel boss gave a very brief explanation of his report. He said that the RPI system was the same as that used at "Dartford and Severn" (in fact only the Severn tolls go up in line with RPI).

  • Councillor Blakeley (a Wirral Tory and leader of the Merseytravel Tories) was the main person speaking against a toll increase.
    He said that a member of the Tunnels Board had asked him what the toll was going to be for Fast Tag. The Merseytravel boss replied that it was as per the recommendations in the report which said that the tag toll for cars would be £1.30. None of the members seemed to have a clue that the wording "reducing the level of the discount in respect of Fast Tag tolls" made no sense and that the figure was obviously a mistake as the main part of the report said that the Tag toll would be £1.35. The Councillor also asked why the Tunnels Board was not consulted about toll increases.
    He spoke about the adverse effect of tolls on the Wirral. On the consultants report, that amongst other things said that Wirral would lose 600 jobs if the tolls went, the councillor said that "it would say that wouldn't it, as it was commissioned by Merseytravel". He also said that this was not the time to have an increase and referred to the opposition from the CBI, Wirral MPs and Wirral Council leadership.
    The Councillor also referred to the "threat to the disabled" (one of the recommendations is to "instruct officers to examine the existing toll concessions for Merseyside and non-Merseyside residents to determine whether they are still justified and appropriate in the circumstances".

  • The next speaker was Councillor Abbey (a Wirral Labour member). He spoke briefly and said that the Tolls report was "flawed" and that economic factors outweighed other considerations, that this was not the right time for an increase, and that tolls made it harder for people to find work.

  • Councillor Mitchell (Wirral Lib Dem) also spoke briefly. He said that he agreed with the previous two speakers and that it would be wrong to increase the tolls at this time.

  • Councillor Dowd (from Sefton and the Labour chairman of Merseytravel), refered to their reduced grant income. He said that you may think that "I like putting tolls up - I don't!"
    He quoted what the price of "ten kilos of potatoes" and the Daily Post was in 1992, and said that tolls had gone up by a lot less. He said that "In 1998 we borrowed £28 million from the Councils" and that the present tolls regime was to stop them from being in that position again. (In fact the Councils never borrowed any money from Councils to cover losses, and other toll operations apart from the Severn, manage without RPI increases.) He reffered twice to there being "over 300 people who work in the Tunnels" (No one asked him why it needed so many people to run them.)
    He said that he "will go to the Government and ask them to pay off the debt of £65 million and we will take it". (He did not say what he would do with the money, but that tolls would stay even if the debt was paid off.) He said that "people say that it should be free, but it's impossible"
    He finished "In my opinion we need to put the tolls up. We are all in a mince and need everything we can get."

  • Councillor Blakely said that he agreed with the chairman that "No Government would be willing to pay off the debt. Free tunnels is a dream too far." He complained about the money that had ben wasted on the trams scheme. (The chairman replied that all political parties had agreed to it.)

  • Councillor Millea (Liverpool Lib Dem, and leader of the Merseytavel Lib Dems) then put forward an amendment to the recommendation. There was some confusion over this, but basically the amendment meant that tolls payable would not increase. He said that it was "not our view that we should scrap tolls. We have been asking the Government for 13 years and they said "No".". (As far as the MTUA can see any requests to the Government for help must have been whispered in a dark (and probably empty) room.)

  • Councillor Blakeley also put forward an amendment that had the effect that tolls payable would not increase, but it also proposed a reduction in the tag tolls (at a cost that he said would be about £600,000).

  • The voting on Councillor Millea's amendment was all the Lib Dems (five) plus the three Tories plus one Labour (Coucillor Abbey) voted for it, and nine (all Labour) voted against it. This meant the vote was tied and the chairman used his casting vote to defeat it.
    The Tory amendment was then put with four voting for it (the three Tories plus Councillor Abbey) and the other 14 voted against.
    Councillor Blakeley then moved another amendment which seemed to have the same effect as the one moved by Councillor Millea. The vote was again nine to nine, with Councillor Dowd killing it with his casting vote.
    The original recommendation was then put, with the same result, and with Councillor Dowd this time casting his vote to make sure that it was passed and tolls would increase.

  • If you split the voting by district, then the councillors from each end of the Tunnels - Liverpool and Wiral - voted 6 to 4 against an increase; the councillors from the other three districts voted five to three for an increase. The tie was then determined by the chairman's second vote, and he's from Sefton and not a driver!

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    Some of the press reports before the meeting

  • Thursday 3 February 2011 - Liverpool Echo - "Politicians call decision to increase tunnel tolls from April “a hammer blow to Wirral”"   Click Liverpool - "Mersey Tunnel tolls up 10p from April"   Wirral Globe - "Tunnel toll rise is a 'hammer blow' for Wirral says council leader"   Wirral News - "Mersey Tunnel tolls to rise by 10p from April"   BBC - "Mersey Tunnel toll rise 'bad for Merseyside'".
    Liverpool Echo - "Proposed Mersey tunnels tolls increase branded ‘ludicrous’ by CBI"   Liverpool Daily Post - "Mersey Tunnel toll rise called ludicrous by Confederation of British Industry"   Liverpool Daily Post - "Time to make amends for tolls betrayal".

  • Wednesday 2 February 2011 - Liverpool Echo - "We must not deter visitors"   Liverpool Daily Post - "Mersey Tunnel toll rise vote too close to call".

  • Tuesday 1 February 2011 - Liverpool Wirral Globe - "Wirral Council leader blasts Mersey Tunnel toll rise as 'knee-jerk'"   Wirral Globe - "Wirral Euro MP calls for tunnel tolls to be scrapped".
    Liverpool Echo - "10p Mersey tunnel toll price hike planned"   Liverpool Daily Post editorial - "Tunnels rise takes toll on motorists"   Click Liverpool - "Mersey Tunnel tolls hike "would damage Liverpool region" - say campaingers".

  • Monday 31 January 2011 - Wirral Globe - "Drivers could be facing another Mersey Tunnel toll increase".

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