The latest hike in charges on the M6 Toll will force more motorists onto the already over stretched M6 through the Black Country claim Walsall Liberal Democrats.

The latest increase is the sixth in seven years and will see the cost for a car going up 30p from the 1st March to £5. Trucks will increase 60p to £10.

When the road opened in 2003 it cost £2 to use it and it was designed to take up to 100,000 vehicles. Latest figures from the owners, Midland Expressway, showed that the average daily use between October and December 2009 was just 42,921. A 2.3% drop compared with the same period in 2008.

The M6 Toll was originally given the title of Birmingham’s “Northern Relief Road” and was supposed to relieve pressure on the M6 as it wends its way through the Birmingham conurbation. It has never achieved its aims and the Labour Government has been forced to spend £Millions and added misery to those living by the motorway bringing the hard shoulder into use on the M6 at peak times to prevent the grid-lock the M6 Toll was supposed to prevent.

It is fast becoming a private road for the rich. The latest price increase will drive more and more ordinary motorist and the few truck drivers onto alternative routes.