Toll roads are a rip-off, say UKIP

UKIP said drivers who paid their road tax deserved free access to the entire UK transport network.

The party was protesting at the M6 Toll in Cheslyn Hay as well as at the Dartford Crossing in London, where toll booths are being removed on November 30.

They are being replaced by a numberplate recognition scheme, which will fine any drivers who have not paid their toll, either by phone or online.

Jill Seymour, UKIP transport spokesman and MEP for the West Midlands, said: "Whilst removing toll booths will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion, many drivers will be unwittingly caught out – particularly occasional users and older drivers.

"But that is just part of the problem. Road users contribute some £50 billion a year through a variety of taxes, yet only around £6 billion is re-invested in the transport network.

"Why should we still have tolls at the Dartford crossing at all, when the construction cost of this project was paid off by the motorist more than a decade ago?"

Mrs Seymour added: "Charging to use our busiest motorways or trunk roads is adding insult to injury to the already over-burdened British driver.

"UKIP is opposed to this highway robbery. We want to block the introduction of any new toll roads, and work towards removing existing tolls from publicly owned roads.

"The taxes we already pay as road users should be more than enough to afford the best road network in the world.

"Putting road tolls on top of the fuel tax, excise duty and VAT which we already pay is simply wrong."

"The government has to realise that motorists are not just a cash-cow to finance other grandiose schemes, like the white elephant HS2 rail project."

The M6 Toll was built entirely with private funds and its operators Midland Expressway say it has not cost taxpayers a penny.

Chief executive Tom Fanning said: "It is really sad to see that UKIP have no understanding of this matter and perhaps they do not wish to purely for political purposes. It is ridiculous to suggest that there is any link between the taxpayer and the toll road.

"And this ludicrous position is just not sustained when we have more than 45,000 customers each day gladly paying for the benefit of using our service.

"No taxpayer money is involved whatsoever, so how is that highway robbery? And in any event the toll rates are a matter for this company and we have been kept frozen for a number of years.

"Our customers choose to pay to use the road, they do not have to, but they do so because they get a great reliable service which they are willing to pay for. They just do not have this reliability on the unpredictable M6, even though the Highways Agency have spent over £1 billion in seeking to improve it."

Recent figures show an extra 1,000 cars and lorries are using the M6 Toll in the Midlands each day.

An average of 45,473 vehicles used the toll road daily from July to September this year – up 2.27 per cent compared to 44,462 last year.

It was revealed in August that an extra 1.6 million cars and lorries used the M6 Toll last year, boosting revenues as drivers sought an alternative to M6 hold-ups.

But Midland Expressway, which runs the 27-mile long M6 Toll, still racked up losses of more than £30 million.

The firm said the huge losses were caused by interest and repayments on the £900 million cost of building the road.

The M6 Toll opened in December 2003.