By Bruce Fegen

THE SHOCKING prospect that tolls could be removed from the Tay Road Bridge but retained on the Forth crossing has been raised by a Fife councillor.

And as the debate on the controversial charges continue, Mike Rumney, chairman of the environment and development committee, has urged the Scottish Executive to “come clean” over their intentions.

Nationalist MSP Bruce Crawford has put forward a Private Member’s Bill that seeks to abolish the tolls on the two bridges.

The Executive mounted a public consultation exercise—it ended recently—and will now ask consultants to once again look at the tolls issue.

In his response to the consultation exercise, Dr Bob McLellan, head of Fife’s transportation service, stated that with the removal of tolls from the Skye and Erskine bridges, the issue is no longer about the environment, economic or social accessibility matters.

He said, “These have already been examined and the opportunity to raise additional revenues from those who are causing congestion and reinvest it in more sustainable travel alternatives has been lost.

“The issue now is quite simply about fairness and equity between the south-east of Scotland (Fife in particular) and the rest of Scotland.”

And Dr McLellan told members of Fife’s environment and development committee, “The arguments for retaining tolls are pretty weak indeed.”

Councillor Alan Kenney said, “The people of Fife are being disadvantaged by tolls. We have made a decision on behalf of the people of Fife (to oppose tolls), let’s stick to it and move forward.

“I am getting sick and tired, and so are the people out there, about calls for reports on this and that. It is a delaying tactic.”

Chairman Mike Rumney agreed. “I have always questioned the need for this, the work was already done and there was no need for another review.

“It has been brought to my attention that throughout this, this Executive are looking for a range of options for both bridges.

“I have heard it’s a strong possibility that tolls will be removed from the Tay Bridge but retained on the Forth Bridge. I find this shocking and it means that the people in south and west Fife would be the only ones (in Scotland) still to have to pay a toll to go to work.

“It is about time they came clean on this for the benefit of the whole of Fife. It is not about congestion now, it’s all about fairness and equity.”

Councillor Jock Cameron added, “We should stick to our guns and abolish tolls and get a level playing field for Fife.”