Local Euro MP welcomes bridge toll bid but cautions of longer term benefit

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 14th Jun 2007

Local Euro MP Diana Wallis has welcomed the report of the Humber Bridge Board that it is to seek a 'toll holiday' but cautions against expecting any longer term benefit.

Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis, a former East Riding councillor, said:

"The bid should be welcomed. I have long campaigned for the bridge tolls to be reduced. However I am worried that in the longer term this 'toll holiday' won't make a lot of difference. Businesses and individuals need to know the longer term position before making key financial positions. I wonder how many companies or indeed individuals will make investments on either side of the bridge based on a short toll holiday of just a few years. If the Bridge Board is looking for evidence of a longer-term economic boom I think they may be disappointed.

"I have no doubt that there would be a longer term economic boom if the bridge tolls were scrapped. The whole thing contrasts with an article I read about the world's longest bridge (in eastern China) being built specifically to stimulate regional growth."

4 June 2007

World's longest bridge to trigger eastern China economic boom

news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2611779.ece