Labour's Severn Bridges failure - a failure to care for the South Wales economy

12.00.00am GMT Wed 31st Dec 2008

Tomorrow sees the new toll charges for the Severn Bridges for 2009. Despite calls from Michael German, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales East, the Labour UK government has pressed ahead with a 5% increase in tolls. From tomorrow, motorists will pay much more for crossing the bridges than the current rate of inflation. Despite the reduction in VAT, which took the UK government a month to pass on to drivers, the tolls are still going up.

Mike German urges Minster to allow payment by card on the Severn Crossings

Michael German commented: "Labour has failed the people of South Wales. I have written three times to the responsible UK government minister asking that the tolls be frozen as a means of stimulating the economy of South Wales. The tolls are a tax on business and tourism. If the UK government were serious about the injecting support for our economy then they would be freezing the tolls. Many businesses have told me that the increases will affect their ability to trade. Already many key distribution companies on the Wales side of the bridges are considering the impact these increases will have on jobs. Welsh manufacturing is taking a bigger hit than any other part of the UK. The cost of getting their goods to market will be greater from tomorrow.

"Now more than ever, we need more tourists to boost our economy. We should do all we can to stop the negative vision of Wales as a country where you are taxed to come in.

"Meanwhile we have the added nightmare of motorists still scrabbling for cash to get into Wales. Rather than handing over tens of thousands of pounds to the bridges in the extra VAT the UK government has let them keep, they should have used this cash to pay the banks the money they are demanding to enable cards to be used.

"Freezing the tolls and paying the banks would have been the sensible thing to do. Labour just doesn't get it. They have let us down."