By James Rougvie, Alan Wilson and Graeme Cleland

TAY ROAD BRIDGE staff, who have been in limbo since moves to scrap the tolls gathered pace over the past year, will meet their Transport and General Workers’ Union representatives today in preliminary moves to find out what the future holds.

The tolls, along with those on the Forth bridge, look likely to be scrapped after First Minister Alex Salmond said on Wednesday his government would bring forward legislation to remove the charges.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats have confirmed they would not block abolition and a vote is to be taken next week.

Unlike Dundee City Council’s no compulsory redundancy policy, the joint board which administers the bridge does not have a policy on redundancy, which is certain to affect many of the 43 staff, 20 of whom are toll collectors.

The jobs of the toll staff would obviously disappear when the charges are removed, but there may still be places for other staff.

Depute manager John Shields said yesterday that approaches had been made some time ago to various authorities to ask if they would be able to accommodate staff, although no commitments have as yet been made.

In addition to the toll collectors, the bridge board employs maintenance staff, electricians and multi-functional staff who maintain gantries, skipper the safety boat and carry out river rescues

They also maintain message signs, CCTV and carry out weather monitoring as well as exercising control over high-sided and vulnerable vehicles when winds rise.

Mr Shields said that, so far, they had heard nothing about plans for the staff when the tolls come off, but other parties such as the city council, Fife Council and Tayside Contracts had been approached some time ago to see if they would be able to absorb staff.

The acting chief executive of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, has welcomed the abolition.

Harry Wills said last night that the removal of the tolls would cut costs for businesses, reduce pollution and increase the amount of visitors to Dundee.

“Anything that reduces costs to business has got to be welcomed. It’s long overdue,” he said. “It was a bone of contention with us for a while and we said a year ago that it was a missed opportunity not to abolish the tolls after they took them off the Erskine Bridge.

“There’s also the green issue. Three or four times a day there was an increased carbon footprint from cars queuing up to get through the tolls. There was always an argument for that and now that will be removed as well, so it’s all good.”

Mr Wills doubted, though, whether the reduced costs to businesses would be passed on to customers.

“I think they work on such tight margins anyway so it will come as more of a relief to them. You can probably guess what the answer to that will be,” he said.

Fares on buses between Dundee and Fife will not be reduced when the tolls on the bridge are scrapped, it emerged last night.

A spokesman for Stagecoach, which owns bus firm Strathtay, said, “The toll for a bus is £1.20, equivalent to one passenger fare on most journeys.

“It is such a small proportion of the total operational cost of a journey it will have no impact on ticket prices.”