Birkenhead anti toll campaigner in court for failing to pay tunnel toll 'in protest'

Joseph Nightingale, 76, of Mere Avenue, Birkenhead, appeared before Wirral Magistrates Court after refusing to pay for a journey he made through the Queensway tunnel on September 14 last year.

He was charged with failing to proceed to an appropriate toll booth and make a payment, and had pleaded not guilty at a hearing today.

The former construction worker, who is an outspoken member of the Scrap Mersey Tolls Campaign group, said he pulled the stunt to honour the memory of three construction workers who died when building the tunnel over 85 years ago.

The court heard how at around 5.17pm on September 14, he pulled up to an exit toll booth and parked his Jaguar car, telling a toll booth operator that he “refused to pay”.

A police officer was called to the scene, who warned Nightingale that he could be charged with evading to pay a toll.

But the anti-tolls campaigner told him: “I am not evading the toll. I am refusing to pay. And when we all refuse to pay, Merseytravel will have to find another way to fund their project.”

Nightingale, who chose to represent himself, told the court today: “I was commemorating the anniversary of three construction workers who died between September 13 and 17.

“These people gave their labour and their lives to the tunnels with the knowledge that it would be tolled for 20 years, maybe 40 years thereafter, but eventually to be free at the point of use.

“We know now that was the stuff of fiction.

“Merseytravel have taken so much money in tolls that they could build the tunnels four times over.

“They keep referring to historic debt, but I call that hysteric debt.”

Joe Nightingale, 76, outside Birkenhead Town Hall

Joan McNeight, a legal advisor in court said that because Nightingale defended himself, he had been allowed some “poetic licence”, but judges could not take into account the protest as a form of defence.

She said the question to be answered was whether Nightingale had paid the toll or not.

Giving evidence, Mersey Tunnels police officer Joseph Weatherley told magistrates he had ordered a toll booth operator to let Nightingale through without payment after warning him on a number of occasions he would be charged.

The court heard Nightingale try to insist that he had actually paid, because he had money in his pre-paid fast-tag account.

Defending himself, he said he had only “ostensibly” refused to pay, because his fast tag sticker had been displayed on his window screen and there was money in the account.

However, prosecutor Kate Wilson said that because a police officer had been called and the barriers were lifted on his request, the fast tag had not been activated and no payment for that journey had come out of Nightingale’s account.

He was found guilty and ordered to pay £830.80 – made up of a £620 magistrates fee, a £180 charge, a £30 victim surcharge and the £1.80 toll that he had originally failed to pay.

However magistrate Martin Reilly allowed the defendant to read out the names of the three construction workers who lost their lives as a way of honouring their sacrifice.

He said: “It is not for this court to take this as our concern, We are concerned only about law and justice.

“I have allowed you to name the three men out of respect to their sacrifice and so that your efforts to remember their sacrifice were not in vein.”

Nightingale thanked the judge, accepting the sentencing but adding: “I will not stop protesting.”