Tamar Bridge Protest March July 25th 2026
Later this year we will see the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Tamar Bridge to traffic on October 24th 1961. 65 years of South East Cornwall paying a toll to access Healthcare, to access retail, to access education, to access leisure and worship facilities, to receive goods and services. In fact, just to go about everything and anything as part of our daily lives.
During the course of those 65 years, tolls have been abolished on The Severn Bridge, The Cleddau Bridge, the Skye Bridge, the Erskine Bridge, the Forth Bridge, the Tay Bridge. In fact we have identified some 55 tolls that were abolished over the course of the last 100 or so years.
Also over the course of the last 65 years, the South Queensferry crossing was built at a cost of £1.34 billion. No tolls. The Mersey Gateway bridge was built at a cost of £600 million. No tolls for locals (subsidised by £442.5 million of public money over 27 years). Tolls for locals using the Dartford crossing have been abolished (and it’s free to everyone overnight). The Humber Bridge had a £62 million debt write off in 1998 and a further £150 million debt write off in 2011. We here in the Westcountry, users of the Tamar Crossings, have received NOTHING. £0. Nada.
If you think this is wrong and want to see change on this injustice, please join us for our peaceful demonstration on July 25th at 12:30 in Alexandra Square, Saltash. Help us send a message to our elected politicians that we want them to deliver meaningful change by way of public funding for our crossings.
TTAG, fighting for a #TollFreeTamar. Nothing less will do.
After yesterday’s march two questions were put to the platform neither were dealt with satisfactorily and both deserve further consideration. The first pointed out that after 15 years our campaign has achieved very little and asked what new tactics could be employed. The present action group have raised the awareness levels but we are no nearer a just conclusion and need help. Our local MPs making representations to the dept of transport in an empty chamber is futile as no one in Westminster cares about a local issue. Civil disobedience would not attract sufficient attention in London to merit the effort
and traffic disruption could be counter productive. Perhaps the action committee should ask for suggestions as to another sensible way forward. A study of the methods employed by the Humber bridge to obtain massive amounts of money should begin, Can it be mortally acceptable for Cornwall C C to have millions tied up in a loan when they cannot look after the needy.Would it be a good idea for everyone to write to Andy Burnham pointing out we are further from London and are less prosperous than MAnchester. No one in that city pays a toll to visit their hospital.I write this in the hope it will start a sensible debate to take us forward.
Thank you for coming and also for taking the time to comment.
I am not sure where the “15 years” reference came from as we were only formed in 2022.
There is of course still work to do and we urge people to prepare for a long slog on this. For example, The SKAT campaign (Skye & Kyle Against Tolls) took 9 years to bear fruit. Bear fruit it did though. As our Chair said towards the end of his speech, “change of this nature is only ever delivered when the cause is just and the numbers supporting it are significant”. We firmly believe that this cause is just and there are significant numbers of people supporting it.
In answer to a couple of the points raised:
1. We feel we have achieved quite a lot over the last four years. We have built a convincing case on why change is needed. We have won support for change at Cornwall Council, also from the current and former South East Cornwall MP. We have built a significant level of public support and social media following. We have managed a number of well attended successful protest demonstrations (all without negatively impacting the local populous). We have engaged productively and positively with the Joint Committee and Tamar Crossings to establish dialogue on the need for change. We also came very close to defeating the vote (we were within one vote of it) at Cornwall Council into whether to approve the toll rise applied for in 2024. At the public enquiry for that toll rise, we put the strongest case ever submitted against a toll revison request to the Transport Secretary. We influenced rejection of the recent plan to uplift the admin fee from £0.80 to £2.00 monthly.
2. Cornwall Council do not have millions tied up in a loan. They borrow the money on behalf of the crossings, it is the crossings that must service that debt (with interest) rather than Cornwall Council. Liability would only fall to Cornwall Council (and Plymouth City Council) if the crossings were to default on that debt.
Keep the faith. Only through dialogue and perseverance will we see the changes we all want.
You move mountains one stone at a time.