Two councils in Scotland are to cry ‘foul’ over the executive’s decision to retain tolling on the Tay Bridge, and will fight on to scrap the charges. Leaders of both Fife and Dundee councils were due to meet this week as Surveyor went to press, to discuss tactics, after the Scottish Executive’s decision of last week (Surveyor, 2 March). Scottish transport minister Tavish Scott announced the toll would stay for vehicles crossing the Tay, although they would be scrapped on the Erskine crossing. Scott said: ‘There are congestion problems at peak times, and ~Dundee City Council~ is an air quality-management area, and bridge traffic contributes to these problems. These would be worse without tolls.’ This was despite receiving evidence from technical officers that there was no traffic management reason for retaining the tolls. The Society of Chief Officers of Transportation said in a response to phase two of the executive’s review of tolling on Scotland’s bridges that the bridge did not suffer from congestion. Levying tolls on the crossing only served to worsen local congestion. The challenge, says the report by SCOTS integrated transport committee chair and Dundee council officer ~Iain Sherriff~ is to better manage the traffic on roads around the bridge. ‘The link capacity of the bridge is currently not exceeded and is unlikely to be in the near future. The theoretical capacity is 3,600 vehicles an hour, while recent surveys indicate that on an average weekday, the maximum flow in either direction is only 1,600 vehicles and hour.’ Authorities on both sides of the bridge have called for the tolls to be scrapped, and the bridge to be treated like a trunk road. A spokesman for ~Dundee City Council~ said: ‘The leaders of both councils will meet to discuss what we can do next to get the tolls scrapped.’ A motion will also go into Dundee’s policy and resource committee meeting next Monday outlining the council’s opposition to tolls. The revenue raised from both the Erskine and Tay tolls is used to cover the cost of maintaining the bridges. The consultation responses, published last week, also revealed that ~Renfrewshire Council~ had advised that removing tolls from the Erskine bridge would help combat rising traffic volumes in the Clyde tunnel, which experienced capacity problems at peak periods.