SCOTLAND has been totally free from any form of tolls for 10 years.

Within two years we expect that Wales will also be toll free.

Some of the smaller Welsh tolls have already gone.

The tolls on the Severn Crossing should go at the end of this year.

There is no sign of any of the tolls in England being removed and in fact the flow seems to be the opposite way to Scotland and Wales.

With the Mersey Tunnels we have one of the oldest tolls in the country as the Birkenhead Tunnel has been tolled since it opened to traffic in December 1933.

There are few still around who remember the promise that the tunnel tolls were only for a limited period.

The situation in our area was made worse last October with the new tolls to cross the river between Runcorn and Widnes.

This was the first instance in Britain of a toll being placed on a previously free crossing, one which had been toll free for over half a century.

Tolls are divisive, unfair and damage our local economy.

It is time that our area joined Scotland and Wales in removing this tax inflicted on highway users by modern day robber barons.

John McGoldrick, Mersey Tunnel Users Association