A14 toll residents 'should be exempt'

RESIDENTS living near the UK's first proposed toll road in a decade should be exempt from payments, councillors have said.

Drivers could be charged between £1 and £1.50 to travel along a new stretch of the A14 in Cambridgeshire, according to a consultation document published by the Highways Agency last month.

The proposal comes after Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Autumn Statement that the Government would explore whether "in very limited circumstances" tolling could be used to fund significant new capacity on the country's roads.

Members of South Cambridgeshire District Council have called for the road to be funded by central Government rather than local contributions and a toll.

Should the toll go ahead, councillors say that all vehicles registered in South Cambridgshire, except for HGVs, should be exempt from paying to travel on the road.

As a minimum they believe residents should be given a reduced-cost annual pass, similar to the deal recently agreed for the Dartford crossing in Kent where from next year residents will have unlimited annual journeys across for just £20.

Council leader Ray Manning said: "Anyone who travels on the road on a daily basis will tell you how badly the upgrade is needed due to the tailbacks and accidents they face that are costing lives and our economy millions of pounds each year.

"If tolls and local funding is the only deal in town then we must support it to make sure the upgrade takes place, but we are clear that we will fight our residents' corner and will be telling the Government that the national problem should be fixed with national finances."

The proposed toll is part of a £1.5 billion scheme to improve a heavily congested 25-mile stretch and would be the first new toll route in the UK since a 27-mile stretch of the M6 between Birmingham and Wolverhampton opened in 2003.

The toll would apply to vehicles travelling on a new stretch of road between Ellington and Swavesey, between 6am and 10pm, seven days a week.

There would be no toll plazas with vehicles being charged using automatic number plate recognition cameras, similar to those used to enforce the London congestion charge.

By Ben Kendall, Press Association