Southampton's Itchen Bridge toll to go up again
If approved, non-residents will pay £1 during peak times; 80p off peak
The toll for the Itchen Bridge is proposed to rise for non-residents to help make over £1.5 million pounds for Southampton City Council over the next four years.
The increase will be for anyone who does not have a ‘Smart Cities Card’ and therefore pays the toll as a non-resident.
It will be a 20p increase at peak times and a 10p increase at off-peak times – and will be in effect from April 2023.
Before it could go ahead it would have to be given a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) and a consultation would have to be carried out.
The proposal would see the council make a ‘saving’ of £400,000 between 2023 and 2024 – and £440,000 every year after that.
A spokesperson from the council said: “The forecast increases by £40k from 2024-25 onwards as the 2023-24 figure allows a bit of financial prudence.”
It wouldn’t only be fees rising, but also concessions being cut.
Another proposal on the draft budget is to ‘remove concessions for Itchen Bridge charges for electric vehicles’.
This could also only happen after being given a TRO and after a successful consultation being carried out.
Scrapping the consessions would only make a projected £52,000 for the council over the next four years.
The two proposals together, however, would help the council save a projected £1,692,000 by 2027.
Nothing in the draft budget is guaranteed until the budget announcement at Full Council on the 22nd of February.