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12th February
2008
“Tax” burden lifted
FIFE
CHAMBER of Commerce, which backed the campaign to remove tolls,
believed it was truly a historic day for Fife.
Chief
Executive Alan Russell said, “It is a further step in opening up Fife
for business.”
He
added it was a most welcome reduction in the order of some £3.5
million that Fife’s business community had to pay for “a tax called
tolls”.
For
smaller firms, the cost of the tolls soon added up to a hefty bill,
he said.
“Say
you have 20 vehicles making their way south of Fife a day and
another 15 going north of Fife, it soon mounts up. If you then take some of the
bigger players, for example Kettle Produce or Diageo or Havelock
Europa, these organizations have got many heavy lorries going south
to England and the cost of tolls has been vast.”
Mr
Russell added the east of Scotland bridge tolls had been very
unfair “when all they were doing was using the national road
network.”
The
chief executive added that tolls had been accepted when they were
in place to pay for the cost of constructing the bridge.
“Once
the bridge was paid for they continued the tolls basically as a tax
for the maintenance and that wasn’t the purpose of the tolls.
“Once
the tolls were removed elsewhere it was absolutely essential they
had to come off and that it took a change in government speaks
volumes,” he said.
While
this was a big day for Fife, there was still the bigger issue for
businesses of being able to cross the Forth without having to sit
in queues.
“The
real solution is another bridge and once we have two bridges open
and the existing bridge repaired, then we can say Fife is really
open for business.
“By
that time we shouldn’t have anybody thinking making the crossing is
a barrier.”
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