SECOND CLASS CITIZENS?

On January 1st tolls for cars on the Severn bridges rose to £6, vans and small buses now pay £12.10 and heavy goods vehicles and coaches now pay £18.10. This is an effective and very lucrative private tax on jobs and business which impacts on both sides of the estuary. This side of the water, New Labour’s Westminster sheep persistently bleated (between 1997 and 2010) that nothing could be done to stabilise the tolls! Yet the last New Labour Government happily intervened in October 2009 in relation to the Humber Bridge. The Humber Bridge tolls (each way) are set at £3 for cars and up to £20.30 for an articulated lorries. The current Con Dem chancellor has publicly stated that he will write down the outstanding debt on the Humber crossing by £150m which would cuts the tolls by half. Here in Wales, all we get is a pledge to work with the Welsh (‘Labour in waiting mode’) government to improve the M4 in south east Wales - which will do little to reduce or stabilise the Severn Bridge tolls. Do you ever get the feeling that we are second class citizens of this union?