OBJECTORS to plans for a second bridge across the Mersey said alternatives to the proposed scheme had not been considered.
Speaking at a public inquiry into the £431m project, transport planner Keith Buchan, for the Alliance comprising the North West Transport Roundtable and Friends of the Earth, said proper thought should have been given to tolling the existing Silver Jubilee Bridge.
“If the ‘necessary evil’ of tolls are accept-able in concept, isn’t it acceptable that a different project might be accepted, a project that has never been put to the people of Halton?”
But Halton council’s transport expert Alan Pauling said it would be difficult to toll an existing free bridge as the public often reject-ed paying to travel.
YESTERDAY’S story showing a net benefit to the economy of £222 in 2022 should have read £222,000.
