Colin Martin at TTAG protest

Colin Martin, Liberal Democrat party leader on Cornwall Council has commented on today's public inquiry into potential Tamar Toll increases

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Colin Martin. I'm the Liberal Democrat councillor for Los Withiel, leader of the

00:06Liberal Democrats on Cornwall Council. I'm also here on behalf of Ben Maguire, the Liberal

00:11Democrat MP for North Cornwall. So over the last year we've heard lots of promises from

00:17Labour politicians about prioritising economic growth and investment, a national wealth fund,

00:23lots of local Labour politicians promising a fair share for Cornwall. If any of those

00:27things come true, then there'll be no need for the tolls to be increased, they could

00:31even be scrapped. So I am here today to tell the inspector that I think it's premature

00:36for these taxes to be increased. They should wait, give it another year to see if Labour

00:41come up with the money that they've promised. If they do, then there's no need for the toll

00:45increase, but maybe the independent inspector will decide that those promises were just

00:49electioneering and the money will never come to Cornwall. If that's what the independent

00:53inspector believes, then he'll have no alternative but to recommend that the tolls are increased.