Decline of Turnpikes 317 



Nor did the toll-payers get anything like value for their 

 money. About fifty per cent of the amount received by the 

 trustees, either direct from the tolls or from the persons 

 farming them, went in interest and management expenses ; 

 and although the remainder might be spent on road repairs, a 

 good proportion of this was wasted because of the inefficient 

 way in which the work was too often done. Mr Wrightson, 

 a member of the Special Committee of 1864, declared that 

 every toll-gate cost on an average 25 a year, and that every 

 turnpike trust had, on an average, five toll-gates. The total 

 number of trusts in 1864 was stated in the Fifteenth Annual 

 Report of the Local Government Board (1886) to be 1048. 

 An average of five toll-gates for each would give them a total 

 of 5240 ; and an average cost of maintenance of 25 a year 

 for this number of toll-gates gives a total of 131,000 a year 

 as the cost simply of toll-gate maintenance, apart from salaries 

 of official staff and other items. Mr R. M. Brereton, surveyor 

 for the county of Norfolk, said in the course of his evidence 

 before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the 

 Highway Acts (1881) : " In Norfolk we collected 15,000 a 

 year for tolls, but we only spent 7000 a year of that actually 

 on the roads." 



It might even happen that, after costs of management and 

 payment of interest had been met, there was no balance left 

 for road maintenance. In the Report of the Select Committee 

 of 1839 on Turnpike Trusts it is stated that in several instances 

 the creditors of the trusts had exercised the power given to 

 them under the General Turnpike Act (3 Geo. IV., c. 126) of 

 taking possession of the tolls to secure payment of their 

 mortgage or bonded securities and the interest due to them. 

 " The result," says the report, " must be to throw the burden 

 of repairs and of the maintenance of such roads on the several 

 parishes through which they pass. Should such measures 

 now taken by some creditors become general throughout the 

 kingdom, the proprietors and holders of land will not only have 

 to pay the tolls as usual, but must also be called on to defray 

 the expense of keeping the road in a proper state for the public 

 use, by an additional highway rate to be levied on the parishes 

 where the tolls paid by the public are seized by the creditor." 



In addition to management expenses, expenditure on the 

 roads and payment of interest, allowance had to be made 



