Minister to hear £100m plan to buy bridge’s debts and cut tolls

Malcolm Scott proposes spending £100m to purchase the Humber Bridge’s £330m paper debt and break the stranglehold of ever increasing tolls on the local economy.

Mr Scott, who will be meeting Government Minister Greg Clark to discuss his proposals next Tuesday, has already raised £20,000 by selling advertising space on a calendar featuring the iconic landmark, which will go on sale later this year.

Car stickers, with a “Our Humber Bridge” logo are also being marketed via a new website which has just gone live.

Mr Scott, a chartered surveyor and senior partner of Hull’s biggest commercial property practice, will also meet the four council leaders of Hull, East Riding and North and North East Lincolnshire, next Thursday.

He said: “I’m trying to improve public engagement in the campaign and raise funds as well. The Government seems determined not only to look at the funding of the board but the governance of it, and we feel there is everything to play for.

“I am convinced there will be a major decision made about the bridge debt in November.”

Under the plans, the tolls would continue for eight years to pay off the £100m and motorists would then pay around £1 per crossing to pay for ongoing maintenance and repair, with the bridge run by a community interest company, the current bridge board or other partnership.

Mr Scott said he would prefer to keep the current structure, rather than find a new one and said it was in the four local authorities’ interests to get the issue resolved rather than going on paying ever increasing tolls.

Concessions for people needing to get to medical appointments at the region’s cancer centre at Castle Hill Hospital, or other medical facilities, form part of the plan.

He said: “I went into this with a glass half full because I can see the advantage of the four local authorities getting this resolved.

“It is in their electorate’s financial and social and welfare advantage to go ahead with what I am proposing, which is better than paying increasing tolls in perpetuity. Within that it is intended that there will be concessions for public transport and medical appointments.”

The £20,000 will be used to pay for a social impact assessment, as well as setting up the company which would run the bridge, Humber Bridge Ltd, and pay for the website and the production and distribution of the calendars.

The deadline for photos for the calendar is July 22. Some 5,000 will be produced in the run-up to Christmas.

He said: “The public are sending in their best photos of the Humber Bridge and the best 12 will be chosen by Barton and Hull Photographic Societies.”

The results of a Treasury-led review will be announced in November.

Tory Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy said: “The proposal is being taken seriously – clearly what we would all like politically is for the Government to write off the debt but that is easier said than done.

“We are all supporting Malcolm Scott in working up his proposals as one of the possible options.”

Last week, the Humber Bridge Board approved an inflation-busting rise in the cost of Humber Bridge tolls.

Fares are to rise by 11 per cent in October, almost double the rate of inflation, after Transport Secretary Philip Hammond accepted the findings of a public inquiry which backed the bridge board’s application to increase them. The increase, the first since 2006, will see charges for a single crossing rise to £3 from £2.70 for cars.

Loan and bonds to pay for switch

THE main source of funding for the £100m needed to pay off the Humber Bridge debt will be a traditional bank loan. Secondary funding of not less than £20m will come from a Bond issue through an unnamed ethical bank.

People will be offered the opportunity to invest from £5,000 at an annual return in excess of five per cent and potential toll concessions. More information at www.ourhumberbridge.com.