Nick Clegg gives his support to scrapping Humber Bridge Tolls

11.00.00am GMT Sun 2nd Nov 2008

At their Regional Conference in Sheffield on Saturday, local Liberal Democrats including the MEP for the area, Diana Wallis and Andrew de Freitas, Leader of NE Lincolnshire Council, presented a copy of Humber Bridge Tolls Impact Assessment to Party Leader Nick Clegg.

The report commissioned by the four local authorities in the sub-region, concludes that reducing the bridge tolls could be worth over a billion pounds to the local economy over the longer term.

Party leader Nick Clegg welcomed the report and stated his support for the campaign by Liberal Democrats to scrap the debt on the bridge and to reduce the tolls.

The local Euro MP, Diana Wallis, who has been supporting this campaign for several years said:

"If this bridge connected two European countries with this level of tolls, it would be seen as a barrier to trade and therefore outlawed.

"Given the recession we are now facing we should be doing everything to encourage business. It is estimated that scrapping the bridge tolls would be worth billions of pounds to the local economy - I would call on the Labour Government to make a commitment to support the scrapping of the tolls on the Humber Bridge."

The Humber Bridge Tolls Impact Assessment can be found here:

http://www.northlincs.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D8F27E45-2A18-4051-9BD4-F2A5BE860552/31235/HumberBridgeTollImpactFullReport.pdf

Photo shows (l-r) Councillor Christine Randall, Deputy Leader of Hull City Council; Diana Wallis MEP; Nick Clegg MP; Denis Healey PPC Hull North; Councillor Neil Poole, North Lincs Council; Andrew de Freitas, Leader of NE Lincolnshire Council