Tamar Toll Action Group Protest March July 25th 2026 – Chair’s Speech
Our thanks again to the 250 odd people who came on Saturday. This included both our current and our former MP in South East Cornwall, all of the Cornish element of the Joint Committee, most of the Cornwall Councillors in South East Cornwall and also a presence from the Plymouth arm of the Joint Committee. Thanks also to Brunel for the loud, colourful carnival of HGVs they put on to carry our banners back and forth over the bridge.
For those of you who were not able to attend yesterday, also those of you who were and wanted to read any of the detail provided in our Chair’s speech (which we have had a number of requests for by email) please see attached the speech given during our protest event yesterday.
One of the things we missed an opportunity to add in the bullet points on pages 2 – 4 is the enormous funding support that TfL receive from central government. We highlight that here to correct that oversight.
For instance, the current funding arrangements will provide Transport for London (TfL) a £2.2 billion multi-year capital funding settlement from the UK central government, this covering the period from 2026/27 to 2029/30. This type of funding arrangement gives TfL the finance it needs to invest in capital projects like, for instance, the £20 million spent on new ferries at Woolwich in 2019. These are mentioned in the speech at page 5.
For comparable projects in the South West, the parent authorities for our crossings receive no funding support and are forced to borrow the money, also needing to pay interest on it. Currently, servicing that debt absorbs almost 1/3 of our tolls.
