Merseytravel has apologised to motorists frustrated by troublesome toll booths at Mersey Tunnels.

Several motorists contacted the Globe complaining that since the increase in tolls at the beginning of the month, the coins were slipping through the toll mechanism causing drivers the inconvenience of retrieving them and feeding them back into the cash baskets.

One, who asked not to be named, said: “The ten-pence piece just kept rolling straight out and into the basket beneath. I tried plenty of times but it just was not having it.

"It was a bit stressful as I could see drivers in the queue behind me getting impatient. But there was nothing I could do - it was the only small change I had at the time.

“It appeared to me that tunnel staff were well aware of this problem and there were several attendants ready outside the booths to help drivers.”

Now Merseytravel has pledged to smooth things out.

A spokesman said: “We are aware of occasional delays suffered by motorists using the Mersey Tunnels over the past few days.

“These have been caused by a number of unrelated incidents, including individual problems with toll lanes, loss of power due to routine testing, familiarisation with the new toll levels for our customers and some coins being rejected by our automated coin machines.

“We are working to resolve all these issues and would expect to improve the service for tunnel users as soon as possible. In the meantime we apologise to our customers and will do all we can to ensure their journeys are not affected.”