Tamar Toll Vote

Last week’s Tamar Tolls debate gave Cornwall Councillors a chance to show party-politics at its best. Along with my fellow Liberal Democrats from East Cornwall, I have worked over the past year to persuade colleagues from further afield to support the principle that the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry should be fully funded by central Government so that the tolls can be abolished altogether. (You can support this campaign at www.seclibdems.uk/tamar-tolls). People who cross the bridge occasionally would benefit a little, but those who need to cross it every day would benefit a lot. So when Councillors were asked to vote to increase the tolls by 15% to £3, Liberal Democrats from as far away as Bude and Penzance stood with South East Cornwall to say “No!” because we have decided as a party that we should unite to protect the interests of the minority, even if it costs everyone else a little extra.

Sadly the Conservatives took a different approach. Three years ago they told voters that Conservative Councillors would work with Conservative MPs to get fair funding from the Conservative Government. But here we see six Conservative Councillors in South East Cornwall voting to oppose the tolls whilst the 33 other Conservatives (including one from Saltash) vote to increase them! The Conservative MP is even asking the Conservative Transport Secretary to reject the request from the Conservative Council! So much for working together for Cornwall!

Labour’s Councillors in South East Cornwall proved to be just as ineffective at persuading their party to support our area. Of course the member for Rame and St Germans voted against the toll increase, but this was cancelled out by three colleagues who voted the opposite way. If she had simply persuaded those West Cornwall Labour Councillors to abstain, the toll increase would have been defeated! But instead it was approved 38-36!

It is looking increasingly likely that the next General Election will give Keir Starmer’s Labour party a huge majority in Parliament. In fourteen years, our Conservative MP has failed to secure funding from her own party for a bridge across Lostwithiel train station, let alone the bridge across the Tamar. If re-elected, how much would she get from a Labour Government? 

Meanwhile South East Cornwall’s Labour Councillors have shown that they can’t even persuade their colleagues in County Hall not to vote against our best interests. Can we really expect one of them to stand up against the Parliamentary Labour Party?

In my seven years on Cornwall Council, I have shown that I will vote with members of any party when I think they are in the right, and will stand up to them when I think they are wrong. I have even helped to persuade the Conservative Government to adopt three Liberal Democrat policies to control holiday homes! That’s the kind of representation South East Cornwall needs in Parliament.