THE criteria for who can be exempt from controversial toll charges on the Mersey Gateway has been widened.

The announcement was made during a Halton Council meeting that was lobbied by anti-toll protestors and lasted less than five minutes.

A new Road User Charging Scheme Order (RUCSO) that widened the exemptions register was unanimously approved by the council, with immediate effect.

Halton residents living in Council Tax Band G&H properties who  are ineligible for the local user discount scheme (LUDS), can now apply for free travel if they are in apprenticeships or in full time education, under a new Halton Local User Support Scheme.

The updated RUCSO also extends free travel to a wider range of A&E and ambulance services, including vehicles used for the transport of blood, plasma or human organs.

Crucially, the new order clarifies the exact sum of the tolls, following a TPT ruling that said the charges were illegal because they were not specified clearly enough.

The previous RUCSO did not make it clear that toll charges would be £2, and only specified a range of what the toll charges could be (for example, 0- £2.00 for a class one vehicle).

The TPT said that in its view this did not comply with the Transport Act 2000, putting into question the legality of all toll charges issued so far.

Halton Council denied the toll charges were illegal and have applied for a third-party review to be held by an organisation independent of the TPT on May 8.

At the time of the TPT ruling they said their independent legal advisers judged the road user order to be "legally sound".

However, that road user order was yesterday updated to specify exactly what vehicles were liable to pay what toll charge.

Scrap the Meresy Toll Campaigners said the trivial updates to the new RUCSO, such as adding tractors on to the exemption register, were an attempt by Halton Council and Mersey Gateway to wriggle out of a jam instead of acknowledging their mistake.

Protesting outside Runcorn Town Hall on Wednesday, 71-year-old John McGoldrick said: “They are rushing through a change in the road user order to try and make legal the tolls which the TPT found to be illegal.

“We are very disappointed that not a single councillor be they Labour, Lib Dems or Tory voted against the new toll order.

“This was an opportunity for them to go against the authorities and all the faceless people behind these divisive tolls and they fluffed it.

“Given that they have changed the law, what are they going to do about the tolls that have been illegal up to now? ”

Paul Fenwick, CEO of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, who was at the meeting, said he was not in a position to comment on the TPT ruling and what effect this new RUCSO might have in relation to that.

However he said that the new order reflects a six month review of the operation of the bridge

Halton Council also issued a statement that said they made the decision to approve the new RUCSO based on the findings of a public consultation which took place between March 8 and March 29, 2018.