Hospital patients wait to cross Humber Bridge toll-free

Hospital patients currently pay toll charges to travel across the Humber Bridge

Hospital patients who need to travel across the Humber Bridge for treatment are still waiting to cross for free despite tolls being halved last month.

North East Lincolnshire Council said patients on the south bank would get toll-free travel soon after the charges were slashed.

Toll charges were reduced from £3 to £1.50 for a single journey on 1 April.

Campaigners have been lobbying for patients to be exempt from paying the toll charges.

Jenny Walton, a patient in Kirmington who is receiving treatment for cancer, said: "Any cost such as a bridge toll is an added stress.

"We're very, very grateful that it's going to be sorted but the sooner the better."

Council 'committed'

Last year the government cleared £150m of the £330m outstanding debt, but the four councils surrounding the Humber - North East Lincolnshire Council, North Lincolnshire Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Hull City Council - could not agree on how to share the remainder of the debt.

After an agreement was reached in February, the leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, Chris Shaw, said that as part of the deal patients on the south bank needing treatment at hospitals in Hull and East Yorkshire should get toll-free travel across the bridge.

Mr Shaw said the free medical travel should follow soon after the tolls were halved in April.

The decision to waive toll charges for patients falls on the bridge board and a new committee involving the four councils is yet to be approved by the government.

Mr Shaw said: "What we are waiting for now is the government to catch up with the rest of us to give us the authority to do it and we can get on and get it done because it was a commitment that was made.

"I, for one, will make sure that commitment is carried through."

A spokesperson from the Department of Transport said it was hoping to make an announcement on the new board shortly.