Bridge bosses have defended a steep rise in tolls amid criticism from some motorists.
Car drivers will be asked to pay 40% more to cross Dunham Bridge, over the River Trent between Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, with the price going up from 50p to 70p, while vans will be charged £1.50, up from £1, reports the BBC.
Lorries and buses face a doubling of fees from £2 to £4 for the crossing, which is about 11 miles (18km) west of Lincoln.
It is the first increase since 2023, when a crossing for cars rose from 40p to 50p, but regular bridge users are not happy. One said that a 40% rise was “a lot more than inflation”, while another remarked her pre-paid card would not “last as long now”.
She added: “If it’s going up, it’s going up. We can’t do anything about it, can we?”
Stephen Betteridge, a director at the Dunham Bridge Company, said it had to pay for maintenance work, including repairs to a bridge pier, along with a significant rise in staffing costs.:
“No company likes to upset its customers. Whenever we do have a toll rise, we always make sure that our case is justifiable and reasonable.
“When the company does go for an increase, we have to apply to the government for permission to do that.”
He said the company received no help with bridge maintenance. Repairs to the pier would cost £75,000, while resurfacing would run to £1 million “in the next year or so”.
Betteridge added: “Employment costs have increased and other associated costs to ourselves have gone up by a greater degree than we anticipated.”
(Picture: Yay Images)
