HALTON Against Tolls are very pleased with George Osborne’s announcement to overturn the bridge tolls for Halton residents.

It has been a worry for many whose livelihoods depend on getting to and from their daily place of work and also for those families who depend on being able to use the facilities and services within their own district. Many have told us that the cost would have been catastrophic for them.

However, our concerns remain because tolls for business/commercial users will still apply, whether such organisations are from inside the borough or not.

Local trade and commerce we believe will be greatly affected by tolls and they will have no choice but to pass the toll costs onto the customer. Equally the implications remain for our local Halton economy due to outside deliveries, transport services etc and the price rises of goods/services in the borough generally.

We maintain that income tax, VAT, council tax, fuel duty and Vehicle Excise Licence duty should be sufficient to pay for road and bridge infrastructure in this country – how much more do we have to pay?

Also, that George Osborne has still not explained the disparity in his decisions to toll the Mersey Gateway/Silver Jubilee bridges and his earlier declaration to completely scrap the same tolls for the newly built A14 bypass in Tory-held Cambridgeshire.

We believe that nobody should have to pay tolls and that our campaign is not over by a long chalk!

Chris Kelly

Chairman Halton Against Tolls