"Give us What We've Paid For"

Sir,

We beg space in order to spotlight an issue which will affect many of your readers or road users.

A new road bridge is nearing completion over the river Forth in Scotland spanning North and South Queensferry; this will provide a more direct route to Perth, Dundee, Montrose and Aberdeen and can really be regarded as an extension of the A1 which stops at present at Edinburgh.

The Government intends to enforce the charging of tolls on this bridge as this was a condition reluctantly agreed to by the local Burgh representatives when negotiations were finalised; it was sensed the project would entail some ransom as very many decades had gone by with each attempt on the Burghmen’s part proving fruitless.

Such a condition ought never to have been made because Parliament in 1909 pledged itself to use the contributions we road users made to the Road Fund (as it lawfully was then) solely for such projects, namely, the building of new roads and bridges and the improvement of the existing ones.

Our Club, in conjunction with our national magazine, has printed protest petition forms asking the Government to abandon its intention to toll this bridge and we seek your support in collecting signatures, particularly from South and West of the Border. Each form has provision for eighty-four names and addresses and we shall be happy to forward a form to any club or individual who feels this “legalised” highway robbery should be nipped in the bud.

Let us pull together and free Britain from these archaic tolls whether they be on roads bridges or tunnels: We shall say to the Government “Give us what we’ve paid for or give us our money back.”

THOMAS MILTON, Hon Secretary and Treasurer.

Melville M.C  2, West Pilon Wynd, Edinburgh, 6.