THE CONVENER of Forth Estuary Transport Authority has welcomed the imminent abolition of bridge tolls, two years after stating such a move would be “irresponsible.”

Councillor Tony Martin yesterday said scrapping tolls on the Forth road bridge was the only fair option.

However back in 2006, Mr Martin, who was made convener last year, opposed a motion to lobby the transport minister over tolls, stating it would jeopardise funding for bridge maintenance and projects such as the M9 spur.

Councillor Mike Rumney, who was FETA’s vice-convener at the time, had called on FETA to ask the then Scottish Executive to scrap tolls “at the earliest opportunity.”

He had the backing of Fife councillors Alice McGarry and Jock Cameron, but was overruled by six votes to three.

Yesterday, Mr Martin explained his U-turn.

He said, “I changed my mind as soon as the Erskine Bridge tolls came off. You can’t have two tolled bridges in Scotland and the rest without because there’s the issue of fairness.

“The reason I felt it would have been irresponsible at the time was because the tolls were funding maintenance of the bridge.

“People were talking about the Forth road bridge being treated as a trunk road and being funded in the same way. It would have meant maintenance projects fighting for funding with projects such as widening the M8.

“But we now have a good funding regime in place. Over the past seven months we’ve been working hard to restructure the organisation and agree a new funding mechanism with the Scottish Government.

“Although in theory FETA’s wider remit has not changed, in practice the new streamlined organisation will be devoting 100% of its energy to the maintenance and operation of the Forth road bridge.

“We’re forging ahead with work to monitor and remedy corrosion in the main cables, we’ve got other major projects coming up such as the replacement of the main expansion joints, and there’s a huge amount of routine maintenance that goes on night and day—mostly out of sight.

“There are challenges, but there’s no doubt we have a first-class team looking after the bridge.”

Mr Martin added, “FETA welcomes the abolition of tolls on grounds of fairness.

“Confirmation of the date means we can now press ahead with the practical arrangements. Our preparations are well in hand and we’re eager to move on into this new era.”