Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee bridges – toll charges update
Halton councillors will consider recommendations to make a series of scheme changes, including increasing toll charges and Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) rates for drivers crossing the Mersey Gateway and Silver Jubilee Bridges at a full council meeting next month.
The recommended changes, which if approved, could take place from 1st April 2025, include:
An increase in headline toll charges by 20% with a similar increase in the price of discounted crossings
An increase from £10 to £12 in the annual cost of a Local User Discount Scheme plan for eligible Halton residents not using auto renewal
Consideration to allow unregistered customers who receive a PCN for the first time after 1stApril 2025 to open an account with merseyflow and have their PCN cancelled. This would enable them to have discounted crossings in the future.
An increase in Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) rates from £40 to £50
Plans for future changes to toll charges to be considered every three years
The recommendations are detailed inCouncil papers published todayalongside an updated Road User Charging Scheme Order and a report from the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board* summarising the feedback from the consultation that took place last year.
They will be considered by Halton councillors at a full meeting of Halton Borough Council at 6.30pm on Monday 10 February.
Financial commitments make a 20% increase in toll charges essential
Halton Borough Council is responsible for funding the Mersey Gateway Project. Should the Council vote not to increase toll charges, it would have to fund any shortfall in income from its own resources.
In order to fund the project’s financial commitments through until 2044, it was always expected that toll charges would need to increase annually in line with inflation.
However, Halton Borough Council has managed project finances carefully, so it has been able to defer these annual increases over the past seven years to minimise costs to motorists during this time.
If it hadn’t done this, toll charges would now be at £2.80 per crossing based on cumulative inflation** over the past seven years. Following the exceptionally high level of inflation between 2021 and 2023, the project now needs to raise additional revenue to meet the forecast expenditure going forward.
The Mersey Gateway Crossings Board held a consultation in late 2024 to ask for feedback on the proposed changes to toll charges and scheme details. There were around 10,000 responses from a customer base of nearly 400,000 registered people.
As a result of this feedback new initiatives are being considered for unregistered customers receiving PCNs for the first time, and to review how businesses manage large fleets of vehicles in single accounts, but the consultation didn’t identify any viable alternatives to increasing toll charges by 20%.
Mike Bennett, Managing Director of the Mersey Gateway Crossings Board, said: “Having considered the consultation responses alongside other relevant factors, particularly the long-term financial viability of the project, we are recommending the 20% increase in toll charges to Halton Borough Council as a necessary measure.”
He added: “We do understand that many people will be concerned about this increase. We’ve managed the project carefully to keep toll charges at the same level since 2017 but that’s no longer sustainable. The financial reality of the situation is that, without any additional government funding, the only way to meet the ongoing costs of the project is increasing toll charges and our financial modelling shows that a 20% increase is required on this occasion to meet the project’s financial commitments.”
Recommended toll charges from 1st April 2025
The recommended increases would:
be the first in seven and a half years since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened
mean toll charges have increased by less than the cumulative RPI inflation rate – which has already reached 40% – since the Mersey Gateway Bridge opened in 2017.