Dear Editor,
We have just arrived home from Portugal and it’s our first (and maybe final) visit since the toll system was introduced.
We have been coming to Portugal since 1980 and had some great holidays there and have experience of the EN125 and its safety record.
However, I think that if a competition had been held to think of a system to deter tourists, if someone had presented this camera system, they would have won the First Prize.
It took us a week before we were able to find out that we should pay at a post office by which time we were over the five day limit. I understand that I will eventually receive a letter to inform me of how much I owe.
On returning to the UK from Faro Airport, we discovered that there is no provision at the airport to pay, and if there was we would have had to stay in the airport for two days before we would be able to pay due to the 24 hour delay built into the system.
To say that at least 90% of the Algarve economy depends upon tourism, it would appear that whoever designed the system and sanctioned it must have had a mental breakdown, unless there is a hidden reason for closing down the Algarve tourist trade.
A final point on the A22: I believe it was funded by the EU from taxes raised in all EU countries, including the UK, so I paid along with millions of others for its construction.
If they must make it a toll road then use the tried and tested systems used all over Portugal and Spain, to name just two of many countries that have toll roads.
JACK BARLOW, UK
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