LETTERS: K Parry

Mr Alun Cairns M.P. Secretary of State for Wales spent £40,000 on renaming the Second Severn Crossing. I travelled over this bridge recently and apart from a few tatty plastic signs on the toll booth barrier arms there are no name plates bearing the changed name to be seen. No doubt Mr Cairns thinks he has spent the taxpayers money with wisdom. I travelled along the M49 Second Severn Crossing Avonmouth Docks Motorway. A great deal of work is going on on this road. New access roads are being constructed into the Avonmouth Docks Enterprise Zone. Companies locating in such Free Zones can avoid paying taxes and even get grants to locate there. Mr Cairns claims removing the Severn Bridges tolls will benefit the Welsh economy. These tolls have been a massive tax on the Welsh people for fifty years. We have paid for these bridges over and over again. How is that tolls on the similar Humber and Skye bridges were abolished years ago? Yes the tolls will go, not because of Mr Cairns, but because the Private Funding Initiative style funding of the bridges has ended. Developments along the M49 indicate that abolishing the tolls may cost Wales jobs far from bringing jobs here. We need to be aware of the effect on Wales of the end of the tolls.