Skye Bridge Tolls
I was one of the many, many people who protested against the tolls on the Skye Bridge by refusing to pay. Went to court over it and everything, got the first "Not Proven" verdict of the trials.

Other people (most of the teachers at my old school, for example, so we're not just talking about dole scroungers and layabouts) have criminal records - because under the New Roads and Street Works Act - brought in specifically for the Skye Bridge, but applicable throughout the UK - it's a criminal offence (not a civil offence) to refuse to pay a road toll.

Never mind that under EU law if you put up a toll bridge there must be a toll-free bridge within a certain distance. Never mind that it was the most expensive toll bridge in Europe (and possibly the world) starting at £6 per car, each way - and another £6 if you're towing a caravan, or any other sort of trailer. Bang goes all the tourism. The Private Finance Initiative scheme was backed by the Bank of America, which syphoned off around 80% of the money taken, meaning that it would have been over 100 years before the bridge was paid off.

In the six years since the tolls were removed, Skye's economy has *slowly* started to recover. In the ten years that tolls were charged ("The tolls are the equivalent of the cost of the ferry, adjusted for inflation" - yes, but why are we paying a ferry fare to drive across a bridge) the local economy was totally destroyed, and it will take a long time to get back to where it was pre-1995.

Length? Not long enough to pay six quid for, definitely.
(gordonjcp, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 8:07, 21 replies)

The economy was probably destroyed by taking thousands of stroppy people to court for not paying for services rendered

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 9:21, closed)

you read the Daily Mail
AICMFP
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:18, closed)

Five groats, I think you'll find.

( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:34, closed)

So if it used to cost you £6 to cross to Skye previously - on the boat
then what's the problem with paying £6 now to use the bridge?

If the cost of crossing to Skye has (in real terms) not increased, then how did this affect the local economy?
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Thu 18 Nov 2010, 9:38, closed)

Because people were prepared to pay £3 to cross the ferry
In the last six months that the ferry was run, the price was ratcheted up from about £3 per vehicle to £5.80. When the bridge was opened the ferry was taken away and the ferry slip "redeveloped" as part of the agreement that no-one would run a ferry in competition. The ferry crossing is less than 1km - you could swim it easily at slack tide.

So, it turns out that tourists up for a bimble about the Highlands are more than happy to pay to cross a ferry, but not to cross a bridge. Furthermore, the costs of taking goods vehicles across approximately quadrupled - from about £40 to about £160 - which made pretty much everything more expensive.

Every other bridge in the UK cost less than £1 to cross, and in all other cases there was an alternative route. The people on Skye (and indeed the rest of the Western Isles reached by travelling through Skye) were effectively being held to ransom.
(gordonjcp, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 9:53, closed)

So you would have been happy to pay a toll of £3?
Is the ferry from Glenelg (?) still not running?
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Thu 18 Nov 2010, 9:56, closed)

And the Mallaig ferry...
(silene, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:09, closed)

Not really an option
The Mallaig ferry is quite expensive, and requires a lengthy detour over roads that aren't really suitable for large vehicles (and weren't exactly fun in a fairly small vehicle).

The Glenelg ferry route takes you over some seriously dodgy roads, and is seasonal - and only runs a couple of times a day when it *is* on.
(gordonjcp, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:48, closed)

Remind me again how long it would take to drive from Kyle of Lochalsh to Mallaig? Seems like a long way to go to avoid a toll.
(BellaBella, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:51, closed)

It is, and there wouldn't be any point 'cause you'd be paying more anyway. Same with the glenelg ferry. That's kind of the point; why would you want to avoid the toll? It was no more expensive than the ferry, and much much more convenient? Point is, that the community were not being 'held to ransom' because there was an alternative.

I could understand the objection if public money had been used to build the bridge.
(silene, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:59, closed)

Google Maps says..
... an hour and three minutes to get from Kyleakin to Mallaig via the ferry.

This must be one of these newfangled faster-than-light ferries. You could barely get from Kyleakin to Armadale in an hour. It's about twenty miles of twisty single-track road. I know the road well, and I average about 20mph on it.
(gordonjcp, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 11:01, closed)

So, there are no other ways to take your car to Skye apart from the Bridge? I know that that isn't true.

I used to use the ferries and can well remember the queues in summer. I can also remember turning up late and missing the last boat. The bridge was a great improvement when it was built. I think you'd be hard pressed to show that the economy of Skye suffered from it.

*And, the reason that the ferry was cheap was because the rest of the UK were subsidising it. That also stopped when the bridge was built.
(silene, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:08, closed)

Economy...
"""I think you'd be hard pressed to show that the economy of Skye suffered from it."""

Well, it's one of the reasons I no longer live on Skye, along with roughly three quarters of the people in my class at school. There were no jobs, because the bulk of Skye's income is from tourism. If there aren't enough tourists, there isn't enough money and therefore there aren't any jobs.
(gordonjcp, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 10:51, closed)

I went to Skye once
And it fecking well rained the whole time. Maybe that's why the tourists don't bother?
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Thu 18 Nov 2010, 11:00, closed)

Anecdote. Like I said, I think you'd be hard pressed to show that the economy suffered. In my experience, the cost of housing is the real reason that young locals don't stay on the Island.
(silene, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 11:00, closed)

The economy *may* have suffered
But I'd be surprised if it had fared any worse than any other area in the highlands and islands.
(Reverend Fister "a disciplined fuckwit", Thu 18 Nov 2010, 11:12, closed)

I don't blame the bridge
The population of Skye and the other western Isles has been falling for the last couple of hundred years, hasn’t it? The young leaving to find work is hardly a new phenomenon.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Thu 18 Nov 2010, 11:32, closed)

Doesn't the Severn bridge cost more than that?

(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Thu 18 Nov 2010, 12:08, closed)

Severn Pounds.
hahaha see what I did there
( Michael Ellis contributes nothing, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 12:42, closed)

Hahahahaha
I see what you did there.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 12:52, closed)

The severn bridge was about £5.60 last time I crossed it a few months back.
Which is still less than the Skye bridge cost in '95.
(tacpprm has a mmrpcat, Thu 18 Nov 2010, 13:31, closed)