Dartford River Crossing Tolls

In a letter to me of 22 May 2008, the then Minister of State at the Department for Transport, the right hon. Member for Doncaster, Central (Ms Winterton), confirmed to me that the intention had been to remove the tolls that we were discussing before we crossed from one half of this debate to the other, when the costs of the bridge had been recovered. She added:"““However, traffic levels have risen far faster than projected and work carried out by the Highways Agency has indicated that removal of the toll charges would increase traffic levels by 17 per cent. on 2003 levels.””" I am yet to be convinced that the removal of the tolls would have the impact stated, and I invite the Minister to set out why other solutions could not address the problem. My starting point is that a promise was given when the tolls were introduced, and that without compelling evidence that promise should be honoured.