The post you are reporting:
Set up by the French authorities at the end of WW2 and before Treaty of Rome negotiations completed a proportion of the port tariff for every ship call, lorry, coach, car and passenger goes to the town of Calais to 'repair war damage'. As a pre-existing and established part of Calais' tariff structure this was exempted from repeal when rules on trade tariffs and 'restraint of trade' were established under the Common Market. Calais does not receive money directly from French road tolls.
Dover and the UK missed a trick on doing something similar when they had the chance and it is now up to the UK Govt to put something in at a National level which can be justified, and stand a chance in the EU courts against the inevitable challenges that will be made by Govts elsewhere in Europe looking after their own trucking firms, under the umbrella of 'creating a level playing field for trade and transport competition' by charging a National 'Road Use' toll which is offset for UK registered drivers through a rebate on UK vehicle license duty (Road Tax). As we know from earlier in the thread, the DfT have already held a consultation on this, starting back in January this year, and are now in the process of drawing up the necessary legislation which will introduce a charge on road freight trafffic transiting our ports with a rebate or reduction on UK Road Tax for UK registered freight vehicles.
I'm afraid that these days, new local, port specific, tolls on vehicles would be defeated in the courts as has already happenned elsewhere in the UK (within the last 18 months) when they have been tried.
It remains to be seen if road usage tolls will be introduced generally to replace road tax or whether, as mooted several times over the last 20 yrs, road tolls will be applied to major new road infrastructure projects only.
