Postbag
Toll road could pay for new A303 improvements
AS a county councillor in another county I can
sympathise with the
frustration for all councillors and the local residents at the
cancellation of the road scheme at Stonehenge.
Although my wife spent some of her childhood in Salisbury and her mother still lives nearby, with my own family connected with Cornwall, I write as a regular user of the A303 over many years.
My suggestion would be that if much (or perhaps even all) of the revenue funding could be raised in the form of road tolls charged to passers-through, such as myself, then this would create an income stream against which long term capital for the reconstruction of the A303 could be raised.
I am reminded that years ago my father, who was then one of the local MP's in Cornwall, was approached to support the building of a new road bridge across the Tamar at Plymouth.
After enquiry, he advised and advocated that the only chance of doing so at that time was with a toll bridge (and at the cost of
considerable local unpopularity).
After a while the local county council and the other local
interests bit the bullet and agreed to a toll bridge at the then unheard of price set at half a crown a trip.
From that point, the construction of the bridge surged ahead, never looking back and it was actually unnecessary to increase the toll charge for years.
I appreciate the circumstances of the Tamar Estuary and the A303 at Stonehenge are rather different and I would think that special arrangements would have to be made to meet the access
expectations of immediate local residents.
However, for myself as a non-
resident, I would be quite prepared to pay a set price for the
benefit of a safe and free-flowing route past Stonehenge on my way down to holidays in the West Country.
HUGH WILSON, Chesham, Buckinghamshire
10:55am Thursday 27th December 2007
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CommentPosted by: John Ellis on 2:05pm Sat 12 Jan 08
As a former resident of Liskeard shortly after the Tamar Bridge was built, I can see where the idea of tolls was triggered. Now the tolls are higher and the bridge is barely big enough to cope with the traffic but it is miles better than the ferries.
The problem at Stonehenge is that World Heritage status imposes certain fairly rigorous conditions. There you are encouraged to remove tarmac and buildings but not build, extend or widen surface routes. The tunnel and long cutting was an attempt to overcome that restriction, leaving the Stones untramelled by traffic pollution (exhaust, noise and light at night) without too much deviation from the existing line.
The Tamar Bridge was a legitimate means of spanning a natural barrier but a tunnel where no barrier exists is not.
Please see the only remaining alternative route explained amongst the coments to:- [bold]Stonehenge decision is a chance to start again [/bold]
[italic]12:29pm Thursday 10th January 2008[/italic]
As a former resident of Liskeard shortly after the Tamar Bridge was built, I can see where the idea of tolls was triggered. Now the tolls are higher and the bridge is barely big enough to cope with the traffic but it is miles better than the ferries.
The problem at Stonehenge is that World Heritage status imposes certain fairly rigorous conditions. There you are encouraged to remove tarmac and buildings but not build, extend or widen surface routes. The tunnel and long cutting was an attempt to overcome that restriction, leaving the Stones untramelled by traffic pollution (exhaust, noise and light at night) without too much deviation from the existing line.
The Tamar Bridge was a legitimate means of spanning a natural barrier but a tunnel where no barrier exists is not.
Please see the only remaining alternative route explained amongst the coments to:-
Stonehenge decision is a chance to start again
12:29pm Thursday 10th January 2008
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