THE campaign to see tolls abolished on the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry is continuing to win hearts and minds across Cornwall and beyond.

The Tamar Toll Action Group (TTAG) has some 2,700 online members and its committee have secured the backing of South East Cornwall’s MP Sheryll Murray, who is working with the group and the joint crossings committee to prepare a case to take to Government.

Upcoming action includes a peaceful protest march at the bridge planned for the end of July.

Committee members are also putting in hours of their own time to touring town and village council meetings around Cornwall. They’ve put the argument in favour of removing the tolls, and in many cases, have obtained full support from the councils for their campaign.

Among the latest to hear from TTAG were parish councils in Quethiock and St Dominic.

A spokesperson for Quethiock PC said: “The Council has considered the issue and unanimously supports your objectives. The ever-increasing tolls represent an additional travel cost for people living in South East Cornwall and who work in Plymouth (or vice versa) and amount to a distortion of the local labour market. The removal of these unfair charges would seem to be an obvious candidate for the ‘levelling up’ agenda.”

Meanwhile St Dominic PC also supported TTAG’s aims.

“The tolls are an extra tax on residents,” said the clerk, “and an impediment to economic growth in SE Cornwall.”

Vice chairman of the Tamar Toll Action Group Scott Slavin says that the support received from councils further west in the county demonstrates that the issue matters not just to people here in SE Cornwall, but further afield.

Here, Scott explains why he believes so strongly in the cause.

I am resident near Saltash and first came to Cornwall in 1987 when I joined the Royal Navy at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint. I have lived in South East Cornwall since buying my first property in Harrowbarrow in 1992. From there I commuted to either Plymouth or Torpoint, so I am familiar with the rising costs and levels of discontent felt by communities reliant on both the bridge and the ferries for access to work, healthcare, leisure and other vital activities.  

Having owned property in Harrowbarrow for 11 years before moving to Saltash, I am also aware of the impact the rising costs of the bridge are having on the traffic volume that is negatively impacting communities in St Anne’s Chapel and Gunnislake.

We have good engagement and support on this issue from our local MP and we are grateful for her recognition of the importance of this issue. We are currently working on a document for her to set out why Government should consider our crossings from a different perspective to other tolled crossings in England. What we are looking for all our supporters to do is write to their local Councillor, and also their MP, to advise them that they support the objectives of the Tamar Toll Action Group and ask them to do likewise. It needn’t be a complex letter but anything that includes detail the personal impact on you would help add weight to it.

In partnership with AUOB Kernow, we are also planning an action day to raise awareness of our campaign and would love to have people join us for this on July 29.

We will be meeting in Alexandra car park Saltash at 12:30pm for a protest march over the bridge (pedestrian south cantilever only) at 1pm.

We welcome everyone’s attendance to show the level of public support the issue has and stress that this is planned as a peaceful protest to demonstrate our unity on the issue. There are no plans to cause disruption to traffic flows on the bridge, or to impact any of the people we are aiming to support with our campaign.

For those of you nearer the ferries, we are also looking to have parallel action locally there. Though this discussion is in its infancy, it will likely involve raising awareness by handing out leaflets to people crossing (on foot and by car).

To find out more about the Tamar Toll Action Group, its research, its updates on meetings of the joint crossings committee, and campaigning, look for the group on Facebook.