[ABD Logo]The Association of British Drivers
Local Issues — Merseyside
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This page encompasses the area covered by Merseyside Police, including Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral.
 
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This speed camera on the A5036 Dunningsbridge Road heading west from Bootle towards Switch Island is completely hidden from oncoming traffic by the direction sign. Now that Merseyside Police are part of the camera hypothecation scheme, this camera does not comply with siting guidelines.
The photo also shows how 40mph is unnecessarily low for this dual carriageway with no houses alongside it, and how there is ample width for this busy road to be widened to three lanes.
 
Photographs ©Pro-Motor Ltd 2004
November 2006
Speed Camera Threat Grows
The 'Merseyside Road Safety Camera Partnership', founded appropriately on April Fool's Day 2005, have revealed plans to raise £4,200,000 in 2006 and £4,800,000 in 2007. In their first year they only managed £1,099,920 — barely enough to redecorate their offices or plaster Merseyside with more mis-spelt posters.
Four new fixed cameras are to be installed and mobile operations will take place at an additional 22 sites in an attempt to mug 80,000 drivers of £60 for being even a few miles per hour over the limit.
 
2006-09-27
ABD Condemns Tunnels Police
The ABD has condemned Mersey Tunnels Police after a leaked document revealed they had been instructed to increase the number of fines issued to drivers simply because the quantity of fines issued has fallen recently.
ABD Spokesman Tony Vickers told the Daily Post:
“This is a very depressing insight into the organisation. There is deep-seated concern among the public that fixed penalty notices are a revenue-raising stream. This is the kind of action that convinces drivers that is the case. It looks like they are doing it to justify their jobs. It used to be the case that officers only targeted dangerous and reckless drivers but the only way they can increase the amount of fines they issue is by going after drivers for very minor infringements. The purpose of law enforcement is to get people to comply with the rules. If nothing else has changed then the drop in numbers would suggest that they have achieved that goal. The drop in figures means officers are either being very effective in their jobs or very ineffective. Either way, more fines is not the way to deal with it.”
Mersey Tunnel Police is a division of Merseytravel, a government passenger transport quango whose priority is promoting public transport. Feel free to form your own conclusions.
 
 
October 2004
Partnership Raises It's Ugly Head Again
The threat of a speed camera partnership has risen again after Wirral councillors announced plans to call on the DfT to back plans to extort £1.8 million per year from drivers across Merseyside.
Write to your local councillor and let them know your views on speed cameras!
 
MTUA call for Toll changes
The Mersey Tunnel Users Association have called for tunnel tolls to be halved at off-peak times and scrapped entirely on Sundays. They state that because the same rates are charged 24 hours a day, the tolls are a huge obstacle to cross-river traffic.

Another inappropriate 20 limit
Following a serious accident in which two people were killed by a dangerous driver, Liverpool City Council have seen fit to impose a 20mph limit on the A580 Townsend Lane in Anfield (Streetmap). The accident was caused by a man driving at reported speeds of 100 mph in a 30 mph zone. Quite how a 20 mph limit will prevent such imbeciles from driving at such dangerous speeds is beyond anyone.
The reality is that councils want to impose anti-car measures on all roads and gleefully seize upon tragedies like this as an excuse to do so. The vast majority of responsible drivers are forced to endure yet more speed humps, road obstructions, and congestion, because of the actions of one idiot. The speed limit was irrelevant to the cause of the accident and a reduction in it totally fails to solve the problem, but the clowns in charge of 'road safety' can now claim they've done something. Meanwhile police traffic patrols that would solve the problem are conspicuous by their absence.
 
Top Politicians Hit Motorists Again
You may have missed it on the national news, unless you can read invisible writing! But on 28th June 2004, the House of Lords passed an anti motorist Bill which has largely gone unnoticed outside of Merseyside, but it's effects may be wider than some people realise.
 
The Mersey Tunnels Bill was passed by 75 votes to 65. It had taken 5 years to get the Bill through Parliament and yet in all that time many who continued to support it, failed to understand what it was really all about. One of the peers who voted for the Bill referred to people in Bentleys handing out £50 notes to "get out of my way and go through the tunnel".
 
The new law repeals previous promises that tolls would fall when construction costs were paid off. Instead tolls will rise in line with RPI, and the surpluses will be used to fund a "wish list" of unrelated schemes like trams. The Bill was opposed by local people and businesses and by the AA Motoring Trust and RAC Foundation.
 
Not only will it hit the people of Liverpool and Wirral, it will be used as a justification for similar new laws in other areas of Britain.
 
They have already collected £500M in tolls on the Mersey tunnels since they were built and with this Act they can collect a further £1.2 billion over the next 25 years.
 
There may on some occasions be a case for a road toll or congestion charge. (As long as it's somewhere else!) But in general tolls are unfair because they depend on where you live and not on your income. They also hinder the economies in the area immediately around the toll roads, and cause some drivers to make another choice of route which will increase fuel consumption and add to congestion on non toll roads. Toll barriers themselves generate costs both in their operation and in the queues that form. There should not be turnpikes in the 21st Century.
 
The Mersey Tunnels Users Association, which was formed to fit the bill, say they will continue to oppose toll increases and have joined other groups to form the National Alliance Against Tolls (NAAT). Its aim is to remove all tolls and promote free movement on British roads rather than penalising drivers according to the accident of where they live.
 
They are planning on having a boycott of all toll roads, one day in September.
 
The NAAT is asking drivers who live near a toll road to help to form anti toll groups in their own area. If you are one of the unlucky ones who has to use a toll road and are willing to help then please contact: sec(at)tunnelusers.org.uk.
 
 
May 2004
Camera Partnership Scrapped!
Plans for a ‘Safety’ Camera Partnership in Merseyside have been scrapped.
Even more amazing is that is has been scrapped because the Department for Transport rejected the partnership's application to join the netting off scheme, stating that proposed speed camera sites did not meet official criteria. This is a clear sign that the government have at last seen the writing on the wall.

Switch Island
Switch Island is a notorious junction which sits at the northern end of the M57 (Junction 7) and the western end of the M58. Not only do two three-lane motorways end abruptly at this junction, but three dual carriageway A-roads converge as well — two arms of the A59 and the A5036 Dunningsbridge Road. Map.
In the rush hour it is best to take sandwiches and a flask of coffee. Switch Island is a prime example of the inept manner in which Britain's roads have been constructed over recent decades.
The island used to be a massive roundabout, then they decided to build a three-lane dual carriageway across it to improve things. Getting in to the correct lane if you don't know the junction is a sheer impossibility, which results in many minor accidents.
The design of both the M57 and M58 indicate that both were originally designed to continue beyond Switch Island, though whether the original intention was to go on towards Southport, or towards Bootle Docks we're not sure. It is the failure to complete these motorways that is the cause of the congestion at Switch Island.
The ABD would like to see consideration given to extending one motorway north to connect with the A565 Dual Carriageway beyond Ince Blundell; and the other motorway extended west following the open space corridor north and west of Litherland to rejoin the A5036 along Princess Way.


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