 | 'GORDON Brown yesterday caused further confusion over proposed toll increases on the Forth Road Bridge by claiming that they would be reconsidered "in the next few days".
The Chancellor's latest intervention came despite Scottish ministers stressing last week that a decision on tolls would not be made until they had ruled on a new bridge - which may not be until Easter, in April.' Alastair Dalton, Transport Correspondent in the Scotsman, 3 rd February 2006. |  |
GORDON Brown yesterday caused further confusion over proposed toll increases on the Forth Road Bridge by claiming that they would be reconsidered "in the next few days".
The Chancellor's latest intervention came despite Scottish ministers stressing last week that a decision on tolls would not be made until they had ruled on a new bridge - which may not be until Easter, in April.
Mr Brown, who was campaigning in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, repeated his earlier claim that increasing tolls to as much as £4 at peak times would be scrapped.
He added: "It's pretty clear when you listen to people around here - and I'm a resident from very near here - that people do not want that toll rise. It is not necessary, we have already had a toll rise in the last few months, and I don't think there is any chance of that toll rise going through. In fact the people who proposed it, I gather, are going to reconsider in the next few days."
However, the Scottish Executive and the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, which is proposing to increase tolls to cut bridge congestion, said it had no knowledge of this.
David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, who was also on the by-election trail yesterday, said people in Scotland were "fed up with Gordon Brown ... interfering, coming up here, telling people what to do".
During his visit to Dunfermline, the Chancellor took time to pay tribute to rock star Midge Ure's role in fighting hunger and poverty.
The Make Poverty History campaigner was with Mr Brown for the Dunfermline by-election campaign event.
Mr Brown told the former Ultravox frontman: "Without you, there would not have been Live Aid.
"You say that without you there would have been Live Aid - but it would have been a terrible record."
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