When the crossing was planned there was much debate from our Government about looking at alternatives; they never happened. The older Silver Jubilee crossing will also be tolled when repairs are carried out. The main issue is that with all other toll roads/crossings in the UK that there are viable alternatives. Here there are none. The wider scale picture is that other routes would also see tolling to ease congestion leading to an endless costs to motorists. Currently the impact is around £1080 per annum to use the crossing. The Council and Government said that all such new bridges have to be tolled, but a larger bridge over the Forth was opened by the Queen in September 2017 and is not tolled. In fact most 'estuarial' crossings in Britain are not tolled, including all those in North Wales and the numerous Thames crossings in the Greater London Authority area, and of course the Silver Jubilee Bridge was not tolled when it opened in 1961 and has remained untolled – until now. The Government could buy-out the private finance contract. This is likely to cost no more than the Government are already committed to spend to support the Gateway tolls, and the cost would be less than one week of one year of the taxes on drivers. The bridge should then be maintained by Highways England as part of the national road network.