MARK Harper claims that the logic which has been used in this country is that those who use estuarial crossing should pay a toll which finances the construction and maintenance of the crossing as they benefit the most from its existence, as compared to the alternative routes both in terms of time and money.
On this basis it's presumably equally 'logical' to expect every road in the country to be a toll road financed only by those who use them, offering as they do a more practical alternative to driving across bumpy playing fields.
But more to the point, if the tolls required to pay the cost of building the bridge over the lifetime of the loan fall short of what's required because customers discover that the so-called 'alternative routes' are actually cheaper and quicker than using the bridge then the project goes pear-shaped, and the environment suffers.
And roads like the A48 – the 'deadliest road in the South West' according to ITV's Police, Camera, Action – and the villages that straddle it, and the people that make a living alongside it have to cope with the impact of the juggernaut driver's determination to use it as the cheapest and quickest route.
If we were a bit smarter we wouldn't just be pursuing paying by credit card to cross the Severn Bridge. We'd be using 'smart' tolls to price juggernauts off the A48 and back where they belong ... on the Severn Bridge. That way we'd create a level playing field. – John Muir, Clifford House, Newnham-on-Severn.