Crucial meeting looms to decide on TamarTag admin fee increase
It's following a public backlash and opposition from local MPs to the proposed 150 per cent rise
A crucial meeting to decide whether users of a Tamar Crossings discount scheme will pay more in admin charges will take place next Monday.
The extraordinary meeting has been called for January 12 following a public backlash and opposition from local MPs to the proposed 150 per cent rise.
The Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee supported to increase the TamarTag admin fee from 80p a month to £2 at their meeting just before Christmas, after hearing that the current fee didn’t cover costs of running the scheme.
But there was outrage from regular users of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferries who had already experienced an increase in crossing charges just a few months earlier.
TamarTag is a prepaid electronic tolling system that offers 50 per cent discount on tolls. In May users saw a 20p increase in the toll charge to £1.50 and car and vans without a Tag now have to pay £3 to cross from Cornwall into Devon via the bridge or ferry.
Members of the joint committee, made of councillors from Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council, said the increase was necessary to plug a hole in the finances.
There are calls for the government to take on the running of the bridge from the two councils and abolish charges all together.
Campaign group The Tamar Toll Action Group said the admin fee rise would not be good for “any resident or business reliant on crossing the Tamar to go about their daily lives”.
“Twenty-four pounds a year just for the convenience of having a Tag account is more than local account holders subscribed to the residents schemes for the Dartford and Mersey crossings pay for an entire year of crossings,” it said.
Plymouth’s Labour MPs Luke Pollard (Sutton and Devonport) and Fred Thomas (Moor View) and Anna Gelderd, Labour MP for South East Cornwall, have urged people to make their feelings known ahead of Monday’s meeting which will be held at Council House in Plymouth at 10am and open to the public.
They say they were not consulted on the decision despite having formed a “new understanding” with the joint committee earlier in 2025 to deliver cheaper tolls for local people.
Anna Gelderd said: “Local residents in South East Cornwall use the Tamar Crossings daily for essential travel to get to work or education and to attend healthcare appointments. An admin fee increase on the TamarTag affects local users and should be stopped.
“Maintaining services on the Tamar Bridge and the Torpoint Ferry is crucial but we must work collectively to find an alternative long-term plan.”
Luke Pollard added: “All the local MPs want to see cheaper tolls for local people. The proxy for that is making the TamarTag cheaper compared to cash tolls. Putting up the price of the Tag may help fill a financial hole in the budget but it goes against this principle. We call on the committee to look again at this decision and reverse it.”
Conservative MP for South West Devon Rebecca Smith has also voiced her opposition to the increase.
Chairs of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee Cllr Andrew Long (Cornwall Council) and Cllr Anne Freeman (Plymouth City Council) say the additional scrutiny will allow councillors and officers to review the proposal thoroughly before any decisions feed into the budget-setting process for both Plymouth and Cornwall councils.
Cllr Long said: “It remains the view of the committee that the only long-term solution to this is to get a toll-free crossing of the Tamar and we are pushing for the two authorities, the MPs and the UK Government to get a solution in place as soon as possible.”