In April this year the Department of Transport issued a press release on the options proposed to cross the River Thames . Five options were considered and 3 have been put forward for further consideration. The third of those options (C) will affect our area dramatically , particularly Orsett, Bulphan, Chadwell St Mary and Linford.
The prospective candidate for Basildon and East Thurrock Stephen Metcalfe spoke to yourthurrock about option C and it seems that if they came to power the Tories would scrap the Dartford crossing toll , which to anyone with any sense would be the obvious and cheapest option to relieve the Junction 29-31 debacle which occurs 24 hours a day.
Perhaps they will scrap the toll if they came to power ,but they didn’t when they were last in office. In fact the only concession has been a substantial discount for Thurrock and Dartford residents after a long hard battle by Andrew Mackinlay MP.
This issue is going to run and run and we will be there to cover it.
While I agree with abolishing the manual tolls to free up traffic flow, I can’t see how removing the toll will help the government and their budgets. With the amount of government spending that has gone on over the years removing the toll removes a very large income, that im sure, the government will not be able to recover in any other way but to tax us more. The adoption of the London congestion charge system could be a way forward… as this removes the need to stop every motorist to pay at the crossing – they can pre pay at a post office before they set off or on line… Im sure the average speed cameras they have put in could serve dual purpose if required. Something worth investigating!
But no to option C… option D1 & D2 are much more realistic and support the development of the new deep container dock & stanford le hope!