LIVERPOOL City Council leader Cllr Mike Storey has spoken out on the controversial issue of Mersey Tunnel cash being earmarked to fund Merseytram.

He says it is important that tunnel tolls and the tram project for Liverpool should be being regarded as part of the entire Merseyside transport network.

But his comments are likely to anger the thousands of Wirral motorists who use the tunnels every day.

Many are incensed that their £1.30 a trip tolls are to be ploughed into a tram network they are unlikely to ever use.

Protests are also inevitable from those who point to the fact that the tunnels were always meant to eventually be integrated into the public road system and made free for motorists.

Merseytravel has indicated that it will offer £40m from "surplus" tunnel toll funds to go towards the £280 million project to build a tram link from Kirkby to Liverpool City Centre.

This week Cllr Storey took the unusual step of replying personally to a protest e-mail sent by Wirral tunnel user Sean Foster.

He had insisted that the funding of the controversial tram scheme was fast becoming "a disgrace."

Mr Foster, a 33-year-old pharm-aceutical quality control technician from Birkenhead, said to the council leader: "While I support the promotion of Liverpool as a significant European city worthy of investment, business and cultural tourism, I am concerned that the tunnel users are being required to shoulder an unfair burden for a scheme that they will benefit little from."

Cllr Storey responded: "It is important that the toll revenue and the Merseytram project are regarded as part of the entire Merseyside transport network. It is clear that in order for Liverpool - at the heart of Merseyside - to become a premier European city, it needs a premier transport network and Merseytram will be at the heart of it.

"Merseystram is a project which has enjoyed all-party support since the approval of the local transport plan for Merseyside 2000-2006.

"If the funds were not used to fund the tram they could be used to fund buses on Merseyside which, unlike the tram, are not likely to be in public ownership."

He went on: "A common misconception is that Wirral residents alone pay for the tunnels and would be subsidising the tram each time they used the tunnels. People from all districts on Merseyside, not least Liverpool, also have to pay tunnel tolls, even if the booths are on the Wirral side of the tunnels.

"Contrast this situation with the funding of the tunnels at the current time.

"The total number of Merseyside residents who use the tunnels amounts to three per cent. Ninety-seven per cent of the adult population on Merseyside do not use the tunnels, but pay for them via their council tax. Many people might say that this is not fair either."

Mr Foster observed: "As a tunnel user I am increasingly dismayed at Merseytravel's seeming intransigence on the matter of funding for the proposed tram system. Tunnel users already labour under unnecessarily high charges due to the poor management of the loan repayments.

"This proposal will just place more financial strain on tunnel users for no benefit to the very people who would be forced to subsidise a transport system they have no use for."