M6 Toll labelled a disaster

The comment came in written evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee's better road inquiry.

The trade union side of the agency said the 27-mile stretch of toll motorway between Cannock and Coleshill had 'proved a disaster both as an investment and as a relief road'.

The leader of Labour-controlled Cannock Chase Council, Councillor George Adamson said he agreed fully with the comment.

Councillor Adamson said he planned to write to Labour leader Ed Miliband to ask him to consider putting the nationalisation of the M6 Toll as an option in Labour's General Election manifesto for next year.

"Instead of the Government wasting billions on building HS2 it should nationalise the M6 Toll to relieve the M6. It would mean drivers would use it instead of clogging up the M6 as they do now. It would be an advantage to both South Staffordshire and the wider West Midlands," he added. The Highways Agency's chief executive Graham Dalton told the committee that 35,000 vehicles a day were using the road but 100,000 were using the main M6 route.

He said: "We are spending a lot of money to upgrade the old route when, on the face of it, we should be getting more traffic on the toll road."

He suggested that, with hindsight, it might have been been better to introduce a plan involving a private finance initiative scheme for the toll road.

But Tom Fanning, chief executive of M6 Toll operator Midland Expressway, said: "It's complete nonsense to suggest that the M6 Toll has proved a disaster. Up to 50,000 customers continue to choose to use the M6 Toll each work day; not just 35,000. This traffic would otherwise be adding to the existing congestion on the M6.

"We are a relief road and it remains a question of choice to either use or avoid. It is important to note that the M6 Toll was constructed entirely by the private sector at no risk to the taxpayer and we are part of the national network. Without private investment, the M6 Toll would not otherwise exist. So where would our customers be? Of course that's easy – on the M6 choking up an already unreliable route."

Nick Payne, the Midlands and West region director for the Road Haulage Association, said the M6 Toll was still a 'viable alternative' to the main M6.

"The number of HGVs from RHA members using the road is up to more than 4,000 a week," he added. Mr Payne said he was still talking to M6 operators Midland Expressway about what else could be done to encourage RHA members to use the toll road.

Mr Dalton also told the committee pressure was growing on England's major road network in 'this very cramped and busy island.'