FORMER First Minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan, has criticised the management of the Severn Bridge.

In his column for WalesOnline, he slams the Department for Transport's (DFT) management, criticising their "incompetence".

Mr Morgan says the DFT are in part to blame for the high toll prices dished out to motorists today.

The former First Minister says the bridge couldn't afford to have lorry convoys passing over it, or traffic jams, because it would cause it to deteriorate too quickly.

The DFT, he said, ignored these instructions.

In his column, he said: "It's a pretty well-known principle of bridge design that the stress on a bridge goes up as the cube of the increase in weight.

"You can cube that again for dead load compared to live load. That is, when traffic stops on a bridge it creates huge stresses compared to traffic passing over the bridge. That applies particularly near the uprights.

"The one thing the DFT were told you must not have unless you really want to shorten the life of a bridge, is a convoy of lorries stopped on the bridge just where the uprights are.

"Well that's what happened and the bridge only lasted 11 years. Then a massive repair bill. Which we pay for even today.

'I'm not saying we wouldn't have needed a second bridge by the mid-90s. We still would. It's just this principle that the DFT can make as many expensive mistakes as it likes and just sticks it on the tolls. £6.50 would probably be half that if the Severn Bridge had been looked after properly."