ABOLISHING THE TOLL

Evening Star, Issue 20255, 16 August 1929, Page 14

ABOLISHING THE TOLL

HISTORIC OCCASION BATH BRIDGES FREE. LONDON, July-21. A notable beginning was made yesterday in the task of freeing Great Britain from the many remaining toll bridges and toll gates, so harassing to traffic Six toll bridges were freed at one stroke in the city of Bath amid public rejoicing, and the historic occasion was further marked by the conferring of the freedom of the city on the Marquess of Bath, who performed the ceremony. Another move will shortly bo made when, on July 1, the King’s Ferry bridge, the only road connection betweeen the Isle of Sheppey and the Kent mainland, will bo declared free of toll for ever. ■ There was a symbolical touch about the ceremony of freeing the six bridges at Bath. Tlie Marquess of Bath was armed with a miniature copy of the Bath city sword, and with this weapon he slew the toll bridge dragon. MAROON SIGNAL. A thousand school children and seven mayors were among the crowd who looked on while the marquess, with a swift stroke of his sword, severed ropes that had been stretched across the Cleveland bridge over the Avon. At the same moment a maroon was fired, This was the signal to the tollkeepers on five other bridges to fling them open to traffic toll free, and a notification to the whole city that the toll dragon was dead. The King’s Ferry bridge at Sheppey will be freed at a cost of £50,000, paid to the Southern Railway. The Ministry of Transport pays half, Kent County Council a quarter, and the other quarter comes from local authorities. Lord Cornwallis will declare the bridge free on July 31, and the event will be celebrated by a procession of decorated motor cars and in other ways. The freeing of the bridge will be a great boon to Shcerncss and other places in Sheppey.