ONE OF Fife’s key figures in the campaign to scrap tolls on the Forth bridge has vowed to keep “fighting the fight” after plans to lobby transport minister Tavish Scott on the issue were rejected this week.

Councillor Jock Cameron sent out the rallying call to anti-tolls campaigners in the wake of Councillor Mike Rumney’s defeated motion at a meeting of the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) on Monday.

The Dysart and Gallatown councillor gave Mr Rumney, and seconder Councillor Alice McGarry, his backing over a proposal to rescind the tolling order allowing FETA to collect charges until at least March 2010.

However, the motion to abolish the tolls was defeated by six votes to three, forcing those against the charges to regroup.

Mr Cameron maintained he was undaunted and would continue to push for talks with Mr Scott to address the situation.

“I’ve been against tolls since day one and I was not very happy to say the least with the meeting,” he said.

“We’ve just got to keep fighting the fight and we’ve got to build up a head of steam.

“This isn’t just Fife that’s suffering, it’s Dundee and the north east as well which is being affected,” he continued.

“If we keep up the fight and impress upon Mr Scott how it’s affecting the east of Scotland economy I’m hopeful we could persuade him to end the tolls.

“It might not be this year as the budget has been set but we could certainly try and get it sorted out by next March.”

At Monday’s meeting, Pitcorthie councillor Tony Martin described the plan to scrap tolls as “irresponsible” and voted with the four City of Edinburgh FETA board members and FETA chairman Lawrence Marshall in favour of the status quo.

Mr Martin said he could not support Mr Rumney’s motion and called for a meeting with the transport minister to discuss how the future maintenance of the bridge should be funded.

He said, “It would be irresponsible to take the toll off but I do think the whole issue has to be discussed.

“I think abolishing tolls would risk the maintenance of the bridge and risk the A8000 and all sorts of things we want to do. The risk is far too high.”

Mr Cameron said, “When I joined the Forth board in 1996, the bridge was just paid for and here’s another 10 years gone by and there’s been quite a lot spent on the bridge.

“We have a £15 million surplus which is going on the A8000 and that road should be the responsibility of Edinburgh.

“We need to try and get COSLA on board and we’ve also got the backing of neighbouring councils, such as West Lothian, who see the tolls as unfair.”

He added, “We’ll all get together to fight the fight and we’ll be making it a priority to hold a meeting with the transport minister to try and change his mind.”