There's also an article in today's Guardian property section.
All this free advertising! The vendor and auctioneer must be smiling.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
"Tax Haven-On-Thames" says Sky news
The story of the forthcoming sale of the bridge has been picked up by Sky News. The fact that we, the bridge users, will be lining the pockets of the new owner - tax-free - makes me sick.
There's also an article in today's Guardian property section.
All this free advertising! The vendor and auctioneer must be smiling.
There's also an article in today's Guardian property section.
All this free advertising! The vendor and auctioneer must be smiling.
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WELL IF YOUR ALL SO WORRIED WHY DONT YOU ALL GET TOGETHER AND BUY THE BRIDGE AND HOUSE YOURSELVES.
ReplyDeleteYOU CAN RENT THE HOUSE OUT, PUT IN YOUR OWN TRAFFIC CALMING MEASURES, AND REAP YOUR OWN REWARDS WITH THE INCOME FROM THE HOUSE AND THE LAND...
WHOA THERE, ANONYMOUS! NO NEED TO SHOUT!
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, I think you're right. A local buy-out would be spectacular. Our beautiful local bridge, owned by and for our benefit, not some absentee tax-dodging highway robber.
In my dreams, a local charity would own and run it.
I don't quite understand why you vilify the bridge so. Do you object as strongly to the Severn Bridges? Indeed, there are several privately owned bridges in Britain, and Swinford is the cheapest of both state-owned and private. 5p seems like a bargain to me. A daily return trip by car makes an annual cost of less than £37, by my reckoning. And this is more of a rip off than £125 road tax, an inequitable tax which is not used to maintain the road system?
ReplyDeleteIn 1964 people objected to the Swinford toll on the basis that it was five times the road tax (http://tinyurl.com/yd4tnfn). Of course, road tax has exceeded inflation. But if the toll had kept track with the RPI since 1964 it should now be 25p for a car, five times what it actually is (http://tinyurl.com/yhzde67).
Everyone makes money out of us all the time. Just as we make money out of them. I wish it weren't so, but it is.
Nope, you're not getting it. The 5p is virtually irrelevant. The money is laughable (except when it falls in to a tax dodger's lap). Its the TIME WASTED in queues that bothers me and my fellow bridge users the most, and for me the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT is a pretty compelling horror. All thos idling engines create a pall of smog on still humid days...
ReplyDeleteWell full marks for keeping up with your campaign Jane but if you get rid of the toll, the traffic levels will probably increase. Although you are quite right, this will avoid a lot of parked cars spewing out gases but will there not be an even greater chance of accidents and blockages?
ReplyDeleteLeave your car at home and get the bus? Is that too simple? Probably is. Not enough buses and too expensive. I don't know what the answer is, but its an attractive investment for somebody. Wish I had the money.
Adam Hingley from Eynsham
Ah, I'm getting a much more cogent objection now. I was blinded by all the hyperbole about "tax dodgers", and "bread-heads" (so 60's, head-in-sand passée). You do yourself a huge disfavour concentrating on that. People hate negative whining attitudes.
ReplyDeleteYes, I can sympathise with the congestion. In less than twenty years I've seen England south of York clag up with traffic and blue haze (largely, it seems, with mothers ferrying "little people" in 4x4's).
It's not precisely analagous, but I live in a village which for forty years campaigned for a bypass. The road four feet from my door was stationary with traffic every weekday morning and evening. It moved too slowly to harm children, old folk, and pets which wandered into the road.
Then the bypass went through. We were delighted. Now traffic in our 30mph road passes at 40mph and even faster. We now have industrial sites because the 'communications' are better, and the traffic is increasing towards its former levels. It always will increase, until the oil dries up or you tax it until people bleed.
It's counter-productive leading a negative campaign to repeal the Act or abolish the toll. You'll create lots of enmity and it won't fix anything - the traffic will indeed increase. You need to campaign for a new bridge, without the two mile limit of the Act. (Developers will even help you.) If it's toll free it will drain traffic from Swinford bridge and your village, and you'll be free of the congestion and pollution. The bridge and curtilege will fall into disrepair because of lack of funds and the state will be forced into purchase.
The cost will be speeding traffic, any retail business you have in the area (including pubs, post offices, and corner shops), and concrete across enormous swathes of neighbouring Thames water meadows. Attendant upon this will be increased pollution, congestion, and greenhouse emissions from the construction.
You can't win. You can only campaign for the manner in which you lose.
TP.
Hi TP
ReplyDeleteI know I can't 'win' but in a sense I already have.
My greatest desire was for OCC to buy it and for it to be integrated into the local transport system. That ain't going to happen any time soon.
I got round the whole thing by getting my motorcycle. No toll, no queue, no delay, no problem.
So why to I keep going? For the other poor sods in the queue. I was once one of them. And because I hate unfairness.