THE WELSH Affairs Committee held their first evidence session as part of their inquiry into the future of the Severn River crossings on Monday (6th June).

The session focussed on the upcoming transition of the crossings to public ownership, and attempted to establish if plans are in place to ensure a smooth transition.

The session was headed by committee chair David TC Davies MP, and heard evidence from Philip Smith, General Manager of Severn River Crossing Plc (SRC) and James Rawle, Deputy General Manager of SRC.

The discussion made clear that key details about the planned handover are far from established.

It is anticipated that the control of the bridges will be handed over to Secretary of State in April 2018.

However, General Manager Philip Smith stated that the group has "hoped we’d make more progress by now.

“It’s quite problematic because at the moment we seem to be waiting for policy decisions, and until they are made then there’s no progress on the detail of the handover.”

The agreements on the details of the handover need to be decided a year before the end of concession, to give SRC time to wind down their business.

SRC is hoping that negotiations will end in October 2016, to allow the end of concession to range from early October 2017 until late February 2018.

However, although SRC submitted a proposed handover plan to the Government in April 2016, there has been no response other than an acknowledgement of receipt.

The lack of a clearly defined timescale, and any solid decisions about the transitional period was highlighted, as Philip Smith admits staff are “a little unsure and a little uncomfortable about our inability to talk to them about the future.”

Addressing criticism about toll prices and queuing, Philip Smith said that the original bid in the 1980’s “was submitted and accepted on the basis of charging the maximum increase in tolls each year.

“That means we finish concession the quickest and so it gives the earliest opportunity for the tolls to be significantly reduced.”

This, he continued, was “the overriding objective”.

Philip Smith also confirmed that SRC are not looking to drastically change the tolling formula in the final years of ownership, although they would be happy to implement early changes anticipated by the Department for Transport (DFT).

He said: “We’ve drawn to a close where we think we’re going with this.

“We’re at a point now where investment is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.

“Contactless (card payment) has been a reasonably expensive project to implement, and it has taken us two years.

“We’ll have about 18 months of contactless being in place, and I’m sure you appreciate that getting a return for the business on such things becomes more and more problematic.” Certain details provided a glimpse of what the eventually publicly owned Severn crossings would look like, and the issues it might face.

Total maintenance and running costs for both bridges last year amounted to around £15 million, and the revenue raised was stated as around £98 million.

These figures give weight to the possibility of the halving of the tolls, subject to public consultation, announced by the Chancellor in March.

However, James Rawle, deputy general manager of SRC, highlighted a £63 million accumulated deficit on the Government’s books, which he said “would be recovered in a period immediately after our concession finishes, and we’ve been given to understand that it would be covered in around 18 months.”

Although a Government review into the possibility of free-flow tolling has been announced, Philip Smith highlighted the logistical issues in replacing the current TAG system too quickly.

He said: “We cannot in all common sense see that DFT will want to do other than carry the existing technology through to the end of concession, even if the proposal is then to replace it shortly after. It’s the logistical issue, as we have 65,000 account holders and we have 110,000 tags out there.”