16.07.18
Controversial bridge tolls will not be repaid by Merseyside council despite deemed 'illegal'
Controversial payments levied on users of a Merseyside bridge will not be repaid by its council in spite of a legal ruling deeming the fees to be illegal.
Passengers using the Mersey Gateway Bridge have paid millions of pounds in £2 fees since the bridge was opened in October last year.
At the beginning of this year the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, a traffic adjudicator, found that users were not liable to pay the £2 charge because Halton Council had not explicitly specified the exact charge.
But following a lodged appeal by the authority, a new adjudicator Edward Solomons confirmed the original decision because he found that Halton’s failure to specify charges “amounts to a procedural error on the part of the council.”
In a statement released on Friday, the authority said, in law, the TPT “cannot and does not” have the power to invalidate or remove powers in place from 14 October 2017 (when the bridge was opened) to toll and enforce tolls on the Mersey Gateway Bridge.
The statement continued: “Adjudication is specific to the case being considered, and any decision of an adjudicator only relates to that particular case.
“A decision of TPT does not have general effect and cannot remove the validity of the order or the obligation to pay. Any suggestion that the council has no power to charge or enforce tolls or that the council is acting ‘illegally’ is misleading, inaccurate and wrong in law.”
Halton Council concluded to say it is under no legal obligation to repay any toll or penalty paid on failing to pay a toll.
The council said that a new order introduced in April this year “provides a valid and legal power to charge and enforce charges on the Mersey Gateway Bridge from 19 April 2018.”
More than 10 million vehicles have crossed the bridge, with around 250,000 penalty charge notices being issued for failing to pay, according to the council.
Bridge operators estimated £1m of fines had been issued in the first month.
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Image credit: George-Stanton, iStock Images