The saga of toll payment on the Severn bridge drones on.
Yesterday, Mr Ieuan Wyn Jones, transport minister in the Welsh Assembly Government, announced that credit and debit card payments on the bridge should become possible later in 2010.
The lack of a card payment facility has now become something of a scandal and an increasing source of annoyance for motorists. A couple of years ago, on my way to the Royal Welsh show on a particularly hot day, I found myself stuck in a long queue behind a hapless individual who had clearly come out with insufficient cash and was obliged to conduct an elaborate negotiation with the toll attendant before he could be let through. This must happen reasonably frequently, given that many people carry little cash in this age of chip and PIN.
According to the BBC News website, however, there will have to be a change to national legislation before card payments can be put in place. Given that we are now in the dying days of this Parliament and the new Parliament will have rather a lot on its plate dealing with Gordon’s toxic legacy, we are probably in for at least one more summer of sticky, bad-tempered queues before the Severn crossing finally catches up with the twenty-first century.
