There would be no charge for motorists on a proposed M4 relief road in Newport, the Welsh Government has told the BBC.
Press reports on Tuesday said Chancellor George Osborne will announce a new 14-mile M4 relief road as part of June’s comprehensive spending review.
According to The Times and The Independent, talks are continuing between the UK Government and the Welsh Government about ways to fund the road.
The two newspapers reported that funding for a relief road would be guaranteed by the Treasury for the Welsh Government to build it. The Welsh Government would then raise finance to repay the loan through tolls.
However, the BBC has reported a denial from a Welsh Government source.
The source said: “A toll road idea has not formed any part of the inter-governmental talks that have taken place between the Welsh and UK governments.
“The tolling of Welsh roads is entirely a matter for the Welsh government and we have no plans to introduce tolls on any Welsh road.
“It’s an unworkable idea and given the Scots are not being forced to put tolls on their new Forth Bridge, it would be unfair for Wales to be expected to re-coup the money in this way, to fund road improvements here.
“Wales is not a second-class Scotland.”
The BBC has also reported claims the UK Government and Welsh Government are in talks about the future of tolls on the two Severn crossings.
The bridges are operated by a private company whose contract is due to end in 2018, with the Welsh Government wanting to take control of the M4 and M48 crossings.
A Westminster source told the BBC that an agreement in principle had been reached on the relief road but a deal on funding was not finalised.
Previous plans to build an M4 relief road between junctions 23 and 29 were dropped in 2009 by the Welsh Government after costs soared to £1bn from around £340m to £350m.
The truth, regarding whether tolls are implemented on the M4 is "Who Knows?" Tolls are already taken to all those who cross to Wales and will continue until 2018 at least when the contract ends. I read, only today, that toll may contunue as the bridges are £100M in debt, though how this can be when the collection booths do a merry trade is beyond me.
I wonder whether we would accept more tolls, Genesis 24:60 was the inspiration for the Rebecca Riots,
"And they blessed Rebekah and said unto her 'Thou are our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them."
These riots of the early 1840's, by men disguised as women, smashed the gates and led to an Act of Parliament to regulate the activities of those who wished to levy tolls on our roads.
A toll on the M4, a few miles after the bridge tolls, may well incense Welshmen to don makeup and mini skirts and smash the toll booths at night!
A toll road would not incite Welshmen to don mimiskirts and smash the toll booths, they would just not use the Toll Road. As for the comment from the Welsh Government`s source, regretabbly Wales is second class Scotland, and Whitehall knows it can get away with things in Wales it wouldnt do in Scotland. As Richard knows since the time of the Rebecca Rioters, Wales has seen massive immigration to the iron and coal industries, and the Wales of 2013 is vastly different from the Wales of the 1830s and 1840s.