Free tunnel tolls plan thrown out; Prices frozen for year.

Byline: BY BEN SCHOFIELD Daily Post Staff

A MOVE to make the Mersey Tunnels completely free at night and to offer daytime discounts was thrown out by the region's transport authority yesterday.

But Merseytravel agreed to freeze tolls at 2008 levels for the next 12 months to ease the financial burden on drivers during the recession.

The authority met yesterday to set its 2009/10 budget and fix the levy on drivers using the Wallasey and Birkenhead tunnels.

Cars will continue to pay pounds 1.40, but the rate is likely to increase to pounds 1.60 in April, 2010.

In a two-stage move, councillors voted to increase the tolls to pounds 1.60 in line with inflation, but to temporarily discount the rate until March 31, 2010.

But before the ballot, a Wirral contingent asked the authority to consider scrapping the tolls between 6pm and 6am, and offer daytime discounts to drivers from Wirral and Liverpool.

Cllr Chris Blakeley, a Conservative from Wirral, proposed the amendment.

He said: "While I accept it's right to discount, it's just lighting the fuse of a ticking time-bomb."

Fellow Tory, Cllr Ian Lewis, added: "If we hold a discount this year, it comes back to bite us next year or whenever we choose to lift the discount."

Members were then told by finance director Jim Barclay if the scheme was adopted there would be little point collecting any tolls at all, since the majority of users would receive the local discount.

As such, the pounds 37m annual cost of operating the tunnels would have to passed on to the five Merseyside boroughs. Neil Scales, the authority's chief executive, said it would be "perverse and irrational" to pass the amendment because of the "dramatic and damaging" financial impact it would have.

A Merseytravel report stated that, according to the law, the authority could have increased the toll to pounds 1.60 for cars, which would raise an additional pounds 5.3m.

Leaving tunnel tolls unchanged will lead to a loss of pounds 1.4m of income because tunnel use is predicted to fall by 1%.

Liverpool's Cllr Jan Clein said: "At the moment, it's the tunnel users who pay for the tunnel but what they are proposing is all the residents of Merseyside will pay for it, whether they use it or not - and that's not fair for people who don't use it."

The amendment received only two votes.

John McGoldrick, from the Mersey Tunnels Users Association, said: "It is a relief they were not rash enough to increase tolls immediately."

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No move on tolls