ROADS minister Richard Holden has pledged to “see what can be done” to assist residents and businesses facing high toll charges to cross the River Tamar. 

The Tamar is one of just a handful of river crossings in the UK where motorists still have to pay. 

An individual tag holder crossing the Tamar five times a week for work plus once more per month for other purposes will spend £500 per year. 

A detailed document setting out why the Tamar should be considered differently to those other tolled crossings has been prepared by the Tamar Toll Action Group (TTAG) and was presented to the minister by MP for South East Cornwall Sheryll Murray. 

The report explains how those making decisions should consider factors such as East Cornwall’s reliance on the bridge and ferry to access medical facilities, employment and leisure, the impact of the tolls on commerce, and the lack of viable alternative routes and modes of transport, particularly for those in Torpoint and Rame. 

The document sets out comparable data and information for the crossings over the Rivers Dart, Humber, Mersey and Tyne, and argues that the unique set of circumstances in South East Cornwall puts residents here at a particular disadvantage. 

The report also gives historical context, exploring how the idea of a tunnel under the Tamar has been put forward several times. It explains how the bridge, once the connection between two local roads and serving some 4,000 vehicles per day, now sees more than ten times that amount of traffic and carries part of the national strategic road network. The two local authorities responsible for the crossings have had to fund various upgrades to the bridge to allow it to cope with these changes. 

The report also touches upon the congestion caused by vehicles waiting at toll booths and the impact on air quality. 

MP Sheryll Murray presented the report together with the accounts for the Tamar Bridge to Minister Richard Holden during a meeting also attended by MP Johnny Mercer, whose constituency takes in the Plymouth side of the bridge. The Minister has “promised to take a close look at the situation and see what can be done”, said Mrs Murray. 

To read the report in full, visit the Tamar Toll Action Group Facebook page and click on the ‘Files’ tab. 

Meanwhile, a Cornish councillor has suggested that as the A38 is a trunk road, the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee ought to be billing Highways England for use of the bridge. 

In an email to Cornwall’s Transport portfolio holder Connor Donnithorne, Callington and St Dominic councillor Andrew Long describes how no central funding has been given for upgrades carried out by the local authorities such as the creation of cantilevers, or for vital maintenance such as resurfacing. 

“Since the A38 was moved to Saltash in the 1970s, the Government has paid nothing to use OUR bridge,” he writes. 

Commenting on the Transport Minister’s request for a business plan from the Bridge and Ferry Committee before the Government would consider more funding, Cllr Long says: “I feel we need to change tack on this completely and present the Government with a bill for using the crossing. I pay to use it, so do thousands of others each day.”