State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, has expressed her disappointment at a response from the NSW Roads Minister, Andrew Constance, regarding the recent increase in tolls for caravan and trailer owners on the M2 and M7 Motorways.
Late last year, Ms Hornery was contacted by a number of motorists who had discovered that their vehicles had been reclassified as trucks and as such their tolls for using the roads network had increased from $15.92 to $47.75.
Ms Hornery wrote to the Roads Minister, who responded via his Parliamentary Secretary yesterday saying that despite their disappointment that Transurban had adjusted their roadside vehicle classification equipment to charge caravan owners a higher rate, there are currently no plans to change these classifications.
This now means many caravaners and people towing horse trailers to events will be forced to pay the massive increase or move onto the back roads to avoid paying the tolls.
Ms Hornery has a Notice of Motion on this issue that will be debated when Parliament resumes on February 4.
Quotes attributable to Member for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery
“It is very disappointing that the Minister has chosen to ignore this issue. If the Government are disappointed that the toll road owners have changed the classifications, then why doesn’t the Minister move to amend the classifications to put caravaners and other back to their previous classification.”
“Many of the thousands of people who have already signed my petition on this issue are retirees on fixed incomes or people on farms taking horses to events.”
“These people are already doing it tough and simply cannot afford this massive increase.”
“This issue will come up for debate when Parliament resumes in February and I hope the Minister is willing to listen to the many thousands of voices I will be taking back with me.”