OF course tolls on the Severn Bridge are too high! What else should one expect when lunatic governments allow private companies to control public assets? Tolls should never have been introduced in the first place as I said at the time of the General Election in 2005 when, as the Forest fondly remembers, I stood for election to parliament as an Independent on the issues of pulling Britain out from Europe, revival of British agriculture, saving the Dilke and Lydney hospitals, and abolishing tolls on the Severn Bridge.

The road fund licence was introduced in 1910 to provide motorists with the means whereby they could pay for the upkeep of the roads they used. After the Second World War the Chancellor of the Exchequer changed the name from road fund licence to vehicle excise duty and used that as an excuse to spend the money elsewhere. No Chancellor of the Exchequer has ever received permission from the motorist to spend that money on anything else, yet according to the RAC 28 per cent of the money is now spent on roads which means the Chancellor of the Exchequer is embezzling the motorist to the tune of 72 per cent. As the money has been pouring in for a hundred years, there is more than enough now to build and maintain several Severn bridges which is more than enough reason to abolish the tolls.

There are two more reasons why this is all wrong. 1: Both Severn bridges are owned by a private company. According to Venk Shenoi this situation continues until 2016. No proper government would have entered into such an arrangements in the first place because it involves depending on private roads forming part of the national road system. In 2016 the government should ensure the company repay the toll money and then get back to France where they belong. 2: Both Severn bridges spoil the view. Neither is up to the standard of the Severn Bridge which carried the railway. They should be abolished and replaced by a tunnel.

– Anthony Reeve, Littledean.