What YOU are saying about the A22 tolls – 11
Updated: 05-Jan-2011
Here is a selection of what YOU are saying about the introduction of tolls on the A22. Email us at saynototolls@theresidentgroup.com.
PLAY THE GAME!: We spend a lot of time in Portugal, residing in Villamoura. The EN 125 is a race track at times, the A22 was built with EEC Funding and no tax should be charged. How would this affect car hire? Here in Britain we are being ripped off with taxes - play the game, Portugal. JOHN ADAMS, MBE
IMPENDING DOOM: I continue to read with interest, and sense of impending doom, the articles about the intention to make the A22 a toll road. This motorway was funded by the EC, built by the Spanish and is now about to be destroyed by the Portuguese. Given that tourism in the Algarve is in serious trouble this act will be the final straw which breaks the camel's back.
I was led to understand that payment of the toll fee would be electronic via an identifier chip in each vehicle and "readers" at each entry and exit junction (a system which would be non-viable due to the number of hire cars and particularly foreign cars entering the country). But I now read that the government has given the go-ahead for ten toll booths to be erected along the length of the A22.
Assuming that the level of traffic remains more or less the same (highly unlikely) the mayhem at some of the multiple entry/exit junctions defies the imagination. The alternative of, say, 60% of the current A22 traffic moving onto the EN125 hardly bears thinking about.
I have a simple suggestion; having just paid my annual "road tax", the paltry sum of €28, why not bring this in line with the charges in the UK and increase the annual tax to €150 - €200 for private cars, more for large commercial vehicles? More income, less inconvenience and less disincentive for foreign motorists (for example the Spanish who, by all accounts, have been the saviours of Algarve tourism this year) to drive into the Algarve. DR COLIN H KEY
DETRIMENTAL: I am totally against the introduction of tolls on the A22 in the Algarve. This area needs tourists who will be unwilling to pay the toll charges. Also, many of the residents and businesses in the Algarve are struggling to cope in this time of economic crisis, therefore, any extra costs incurred by them will have a huge detrimental effect on them. The extra costs incurred by businesses will have to be passed on to the consumer. There is no suitable alternative to this motorway. The N125 is not in a fit state to cope with the extra volume of traffic that will be using this road. GWYNDRA O’BRIEN
LUDICROUS: : I am against the introduction of tolls on the A22. How can this government think it is a good idea? It’s ludicrous. There are many more ways that money can be raised to be spent on the roads, such as speed cameras or police patrols to fine speeding and dangerous motorists, of which there are many. DANIEL O’BRIEN
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