This meeting was about reviewing the performance and finances of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry and setting budgets for the coming financial year. It included a report from the Programme Director of the Tamar 2050 programme which will guide the future of the two crossings. The meeting also included the consideration of the revenue budget and capital programme for 2025/26.

2025/26 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme

The Committee were asked to recommend approval of the 2025/26 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme to the Full Councils of Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council.

The budget for 2025/26 proposed total revenue expenditure of £19,442,000. This includes a £3,645,000 Minimum Revenue Provision, which is a payment made by the council to itself to cover the future costs of replacing its assets¹. The proposed budget includes a £596,000 surplus, which will increase the Joint Committee's contingency reserve to £1,573,000 by 31 March 2026.

The budget assumes that tolls will increase on the 1st of February 2025. A public enquiry was held in October to consider the council's application to the Secretary of State for Transport to increase tolls, but the outcome had not been decided at the time of the meeting. The report notes:

There continues to be a risk that central Government do not agree the toll revision and the cash toll (and corresponding Tag toll) cannot be increased from February 2025.

The proposed budget for 2025/26 includes borrowing £12,310,000 to fund capital projects.

The capital programme for 2025/26 included spending £3,350,000 upgrading the bridge's fire protection system. £2,800,000 was allocated to decarbonising the Torpoint Ferry, subject to a successful bid for grant funding from Innovate UK. £1,824,000 was allocated to remedial works to the bridge's main cable. The final £1,800,000 of a three year £5,554,000 programme to refit the ferries was also allocated.

The report also provided indicative budget forecasts for the three years to 2028/29. It assumed that the contingency reserve would decline between 2026/27 and 2027/28 before increasing again in 2028/29. This increase assumed that the government would allow the Joint Committee to index link tolls to the Retail Price Index (RPI)² in 2028.

The report was accompanied by the draft annual business plan for 2025/26.

General Manager's Quarterly Report

The General Manager's Quarterly Report provided an update on the operations of the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry between the 1st of August and the 31st of October 2024.

The report included graphs of the ferry's availability. A table provided the Joint Committee's Key Performance Indicators, including measures of the crossings' safety, reliability, effectiveness, efficiency and environmental performance.

The report noted that work to replace the traffic light gantries at the Torpoint Ferry had been completed ahead of schedule on 23 October.

The first of the new toll booths was scheduled to be installed on the Tamar Bridge during the weekend of 15 November 2024. The report notes that:

To minimise the impact on bridge users, the work [was] scheduled outside of peak hours, commencing on the Friday and continuing through the weekend period until the new booth is ready for operation.

£200,000 of additional funding has been made available to refurbish the Ferry Offices in Torpoint.

The report included tables of the average journey times across the bridge and the surrounding road network. Average journey times across the bridge were reported to have been reduced following the installation of new card readers at the bridge's toll booths.

2024/25 Budget Monitoring

The meeting included a report on the Joint Committee's budget for the 2024/25 financial year. This report included an update on the capital programme for the year, and an updated estimate of the Joint Committee's reserves. The report noted that:

The revenue position currently shows an overall deficit of £0.213m, a favourable variance of £0.193m year to date.

The report notes that, based on the current estimates, the Joint Committee's reserves will be £0.977m at the end of the financial year, an improvement of £0.301m from the previous estimate.

The report included a table of capital spending to date, and noted that the forecast for the year remained unchanged.

Programme Director Tamar 2050 Report

This was the first report on the Tamar 2050 programme of work to improve the two crossings.

The report noted that progress on the programme had been slower than anticipated. It stated that:

Actions over the next weeks are expected to result in there being more progress over the coming quarter.

A stakeholder panel is expected to be set up in early 2025 to provide feedback on the programme.

The report noted that discussions were taking place with the three local Members of Parliament about the long-term financial sustainability of the two crossings.

A seven-month trial of a mobile catering facility at the bridge had concluded, with the operator deciding not to extend the arrangement. The report states that:

Officers intend to approach the market again in January with the intention of the service recommencing in April 2025.

The second stage of a consultancy reviewing the feasibility of introducing Open Road Tolling at the Tamar Bridge was contracted, with the final report expected in Spring 2025.

A bid for grant funding from Innovate UK had been submitted to fund a feasibility study into decarbonising the Torpoint Ferry. At the time of the meeting the outcome of the bid was not known. The report notes that:

If successful Torpoint Ferry along with its consortium partners University of Plymouth, Marine Zero³ & Houlder⁴ will receiving funding to pursue a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) study preparing plans in readiness for the decarbonisation conversion of an existing ferry, providing a design specification and costing required shore infrastructure and charging solutions for the vessel.

The final part of the report discussed the replacement of the journey time monitoring system. The report noted that the current system had several shortcomings, and that a new system was being introduced during the first half of 2025 that would allow users to view journey times on the Joint Committee's website.

The report also provided an update on the new tolling system that had been introduced during the reporting period. The report notes that:

The upgrade has had the anticipated positive effect on processing times, particularly since the replacement units have improved proximity readers for contactless payments.