Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the annual maintenance cost was of the Severn Bridges in the last year for which statistics are available; and how many toll paying vehicles in each vehicle category crossed the bridges in that year.

The combined operating and maintenance costs from Severn River Crossing Plc’s (SRC) 2015 accounts were £13.39m. SRC do not provide the separate maintenance costs within the accounts. In addition, in 2015-16, Highways England incurred costs of £0.35m for winter maintenance on the Severn Crossings and £1.15m from the maintenance and inspection of the Severn Bridge main suspension cable. There are additional regular but not annual costs, such as the specialised resurfacing required for the M48 bridge.

In 2015 there were 13.9 million crossings by toll paying vehicles, with 10.9 million of these by category 1 vehicles (cars and other vehicles up to 9 seats), 1.5 million crossings by category 2 vehicles (small buses and small goods vehicles) and 1.5 million crossings by category 3 vehicles (large buses and large goods vehicles).