§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to respond to the Transport Committee's report on tolled estuarial crossings; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MooreI have sent to the hon. Member for Sunderland, South (Mr. Bagier) the Chairman of the Committee, the Government's response to its report.
I regret that the Government have been unable to accept the Select Committee's recommendations that tolls should be abolished on crossings linked to motorways and trunk roads, that we should write off the debts of tolled crossings that are owed to the Exchequer, and that we should discharge over a fixed period the debts owed to private sources. The Government take the view that the debts on the tolled crossings were freely incurred by the authorities concerned. These cannot be written off without financial penalty.
The Government recognise the special financial problems of the Humber bridge: my predecessor acknowledged them in his oral evidence to the Select Committee. My officials are discussing with the Humber Bridge board possible measures to resolve the financial problems of the bridge. In addition, our response to the 121W Select Committee states that where other crossing authorities consider that they face similar problems, the Government would be willing to consider their financial projections and related proposals for alleviating those problems, provided the authorities have exhausted the possibilities of their own enabling legislation.
Publication of the Government's response is a matter for the Committee.