Dartford River Crossing Tolls

We will need to hear from the Minister on that point, but certainly the anecdotal evidence is that congestion at the toll booths has got worse, not better, as drivers scrabble around to find the correct change. I was recently told a story about a driver who was struggling to find the correct money for the toll. The motorist behind got out of his car in a slightly aggressive manner, and the driver thought that he would end up in an angry exchange with him, or worse. Instead, the man grumpily gave him 50p and said, ““I'm in a hurry.”” We could probably all relay stories of similar things happening. As a sop to residents in the area of the crossing, the Government have introduced a scheme for residents of the Thurrock and Dartford council areas to receive discounts when using the crossing. However, the scheme hardly seems a rip-roaring success, with some reports that as of a month ago, only 6,000 people had registered for it since July. Will the Minister confirm how many people have registered for the benefits of the discount scheme? More significantly, as we have heard, the discount scheme is arbitrary in its application. A person can live nearly 13 miles away from the bridge in some parts of Thurrock and receive the benefit of the discount scheme, yet a Havering or Bexley resident living much closer simply has to put up with being charged more. As Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, noted in his representation on the plans for the revised charges in the area covered by the discount:"““It is clearly unfair that communities in, for example, Crayford in Bexley (only three miles from the Crossing) are not included within the proposed local discount area, when the residents in Coryton in Thurrock, over ten miles to the east of the crossing are included.””" I could make exactly the same point about people living in Rainham village or Wennington village in my constituency. Tracey Crouch, the Conservative candidate for Chatham and Aylesford, contacted me to point out that if the same distance test were applied, a large part of Medway, on the doorstep of the Minister's constituency in Gillingham, would be covered.